^RY  OF  PWNCfT^ 

BS 

.W\57 


THE 


STORY  OF  THE  MANUSCRIPTS. 


BY 

REV.  GEORGE  E.  MERRILL. 


BOSTON: 

D.    LOTHROP    AND    COMPANY, 

32  Franklin  Stbeet. 


Copyright,   18S1, 
By  D.  Lothrop  and  Company- 


Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
4  Peakl  Street. 


"  Bring  with  thee  the  books,  especially  the  parchments." 

St.  Paul  to  Timothy,  2  Eph.  iv.  13. 

"The  title-deeds  of  our  Christian  inheritance." 

Anonymous. 

"Yes,  I  might  almost  say  to  the  Lord, 
Here  is  a  copy  of  thy  "Word, 
Written  out  with  much  toil  and  pain ; 
Take  it,  O  Lord,  and  let  it  be 
As  something  1  have  done  for  Thee." 

Friak  Pacificus,  in  the  "  Golden  Legend,"  H.  W.  Longfellow. 


PEE  FACE. 


r  1 1HESE  pages  are  an  attempt  to  give  some  in- 
formation,  in  a  popular  form,  concerning  sub- 
jects usually  treated  only  in  Introductions  to  the 
Scriptures,  or  in  similar  and  often  costly  works. 
It  is  believed  that,  in  these  days  of  devotion  to  the 
study  of  the  Bible,  there  are  many  persons  who 
will  welcome  the  story,  briefly  told,  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Christian  Scriptures  have  been  trans- 
mitted to  modern  times,  and  the  certainty  we  have, 
through  the  labors  of  the  great  scholars,  that  these 
writings  are  really  apostolic.  It  is  not  claimed 
that  the  consideration  of  these  subjects  in  this 
small  volume  is  complete,  except  so  far  as  the  cor- 
rect statement  of  facts  is  concerned,  for  which  the 
latest  and  best  authorities  have  been  faithfully  con- 
sulted, and  the  proper  acknowledgment  made  in 
the  pages  themselves.     An  exhaustive  treatment 


VI  PREFACE. 

would  have  been  also  exhausting  to  the  readers  for 
whom  the  book  is  intended,  and  to  whom  it  is 
committed  in  the  hope  that  it  may  contribute, 
though  by  only  a  little,  to  reverence  for  those 
Scriptures,  which  "  make  wise  unto  salvation 
through  faith,  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ." 

G.  E.  M. 

Salem,  April,  1881. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEE  PAGE 

Introduction  :  A  Revised  New  Testament  ix 

I.    The  Book 1 

II.    Books  in  Ancient  Times       ....  23 

III.  Manuscripts  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  37 

IV.  The  Alexandrine  Manuscript    ...  58 
V.    The  Vatican  Manuscript     .        .        .        .67 

VI.   The  Sinaitic  Manuscript     ....  84 

VII.    The  Palimpsests 101 

VIII.    Other  Uncials,  Fragments,  and  Cursives  117 

IX.    The  Latest  Discovery         ....  143 

X.    Versions 150 

XI.    How  are  the  Manuscripts  used.?*       .        .  164 

XII.    The  Great  Critics 180 

Xni.    Conclusion     . 193 

Appendix 198 


USTTEODUCTIOK 

A   REVISED   BIBLE. 

The  readers  of  the  English  Bible  during  two 
hundred  and  seventy  years  have  found  it  a  sufficient 
guide  to  holy  living,  a  light  of  such  brilliancy  as  to 
show  them  that  far-off  heavenly  land,  to  which  the 
journey  through  these  earthly  years  is  but  the  ap- 
proach. But  after  burning  almost  three  centuries, 
shall  not  the  lamp  be  trimmed  ?  May  it  not  cast  even 
a  brighter  gleam  upon  the  pathway  of  men  in  the  fu- 
ture ?  If  the  present  generation  has  gained  access  to 
any  resources,  or  won  any  skill,  beyond  those  pos- 
sessed by  the  early  translators,  Avho  brought  the  kin- 
dled flame  to  us,  it  is  surely  a  duty  to  use  them  for 
the  better  enlightenment  of  the  peoj^le  in  the  coming- 
time. 

Many  English  and  Anglo-Saxon  translations  from 
the  Scriptures  preceded  that  known  as  "the  author- 
ized," or  "  King  James's  Version."  Even  in  the  very 
earliest  times  of  Christianity  in  Britain,  portions  of 
the  Sacred  AYritings  were  rendered  from  the  Latin 
then  in  common  use,  and  given  to  the  jDeoj^le  through 
the  homilies  of  priests,  or  the  chantings  of  j^oets. 
These  were  often  no  more  than  rough  paraj^hrases,  ac- 
companied by  notes  and  comments ;  but  they  were  of 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

the  greatest  value  in  giving  familiarity  with  Biblical 
truth.  Tlie  earliest  of  these  was  the  paraj^hrase  in 
verse  by  Caedmon  of  Whitby,  a  monk  of  the  seventh 
century.  In  King  Alfred's  Beda,*  an  account  is 
given  of  the  belief,  that  Caedmon  was  specially  in- 
spired to  sing  the  great  themes  of  the  Creation  and 
Fall  of  Man,  the  History  of  Israel,  the  Incarnation  and 
Passion  of  Jesus,  the  Doom  of  Hell,  and  the  Bliss  of 
Heaven.  While  he  slept  in  a  stable  a  vision  was 
granted  him,  the  story  goes,  and  he  began  to  sing 
"  the  verse  and  the  word,  that  he  never  had  heard." 
Aldhelm  and  Cuthlac  made  versions  of  the  Psalms 
about  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century,  and  the 
Venerable  Bede  closed  his  life  while  dictating  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.  Then  JElfred,  the 
King,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  ninth  century  translated 
parts  of  Exodus,  including  the  Ten  Commandments, 
and  he  was  engaged  upon  the  Psalms  when  he  died. 
^Ifric  followed  with  his  homilies,  which  gave  to  the 
people  large  portions  of  Scripture  with  his  comments 
upon  them.  But  all  of  these  efforts  were  prior  to  the 
earliest  English,  and  were  in  the  tongue  that  was  the 
parental  stock  from  which  the  English  was  to  come. 
It  is  true  that  even  then,  and  much  earlier,  the  term 
English  was  sometimes  applied  to  the  language,  as  in 
the  title  of  one  of  these  very  works :  "  The  Halgan 
Godspel  on  Englisc."  But  a  few  lines  from  this 
"Godspel,"  with  a  simple  English  equivalent,  will 
show  a  wide  difference  between  the  two  exam2)les  :  — 

*  Analecta    Anglo-Saxonica :    Benjamin  Tliorpe,    F.    S.    A., 
page  105. 


INTEODUCTION.  XI 

"Se  Johannes  witodlice  haefde  reaf  of  oKenda 
haerum,  and  fellenne  gyrdel  ymbe  hys  lendenu;  and 
liys  mete  waes  gaerstapan  and  Avudu-bunig." 

This  is  hardly  recognizable  as  what  we  read  in 
equivalent  English :  "  The  same  John  truly  had  rai- 
ment of  camel's  hair,  and  a  leathern  girdle  about  his 
loins;  and  his  meat  was  locusts  (gi-ass-steppers)  and 
wild  (wood)  honey."     Matt.  iii.  4. 

Another  example  may  be  given  from  the  Ormulum, 
a  rude  metrical  version  of  the  close  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, named  after  its  author,  the  poet  Orm.  It  is 
preserved  in  a  manuscript  containing  the  Gospels  and 
the  Acts,  about  twenty  thousand  lines  in  all,  deposited 
in  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford. 

"  Forrthrihht  se  Jesus  fullhtnedd  ^ass, 

He  wennde  himm  inntill  wesste. 
The  Goddspell  seyyth  thatt  he  wass  ledd 

Thurrh  Gast  inntill  the  wesste, 
Annd  tatt  forr  thatt  he  shollde  thser 

Beon  fandedd  thurrh  the  deofell."  * 

This  is  not  English,  though  many  English  words  ap- 
pear ;  and  it  is  evident  that  the  transition  is  becoming 
raj^id,  and  that  the  stream  of  the  older  language  is 
falling  steeply  into  the  broader  river  near  at  hand. 
The  Ormulum  is  very  similar  in  linguistic  traits  to  a 
prose  version  of  Genesis  and  Exodus  preserved  in  a 
manuscript  at  Cambridge.  William  of  Shoreham 
probably  should  be  considered  the  first  translator  into 

*  Lines  11,319-11,324.  See  Altenglische  Sprachproben, 
Poesie,  p.  9 ;  E.  Matzner.  The  Anglo-Saxon  characters  for 
the  th  and  y  sounds  are  here  given  in  the  English  equivalents. 


Xll  INTRODUCTION. 

English,  though  Richard  Rolle  of  Hampole  was  only  a 
few  years  later,  and  the  same  approximate  date,  the 
year  1330,  may  be  assigned  to  the  versions  of  the 
Psalms,  which  these  writers  prepared. 

Unquestionably  the  most  important  work  of  transla^ 
tion  performed  previous  to  the  sixteenth  century  was 
that  of  John  Wyclif.  He  was  born  in  Yorkshire  in 
1324,  and  during  a  quarter  of  a  century  was  connected 
with  the  University  of  Oxford,  either  as  student  or 
instructor.  His  literary  labors  were  great,  but  the 
greatest  of  all  was  his  version  of  the  Bible,  in  a  por- 
tion of  which  he  had  the  assistance  of  Nicholas  of 
Hereford,  a  scholar  of  some  repute.  Hereford's  work 
was  confined,  however,  to  a  portion  of  the  Old  Testar 
ment.  The  whole  Bible  was  completed  about  the 
year  1380.  Wyclif  employed  the  Latin  of  the  Vul- 
gate as  the  basis  of  his  translation.  The  Vulgate  was, 
of  course,  itself  a  translation,  and  that,  too,  not  an  in- 
dependent work  from  Greek  originals,  but  a  revision 
of  an  older  Latin  text.  This  Bible  excited  strong 
opposition  among  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  time,  who 
feared  a  diminution  of  their  power,  if  the  people 
should  receive  the  truth  without  its  coming  through 
their  ministrations.  A  contemporary.  Canon  of 
Leicester,  wrote  of  Wyclif  :  —  "  Christ  delivered  his 
gospel  to  the  clergy  and  doctors  of  the  church,  that 
that  they  might  minister  to  the  laity  and  to  weaker 
persons,  according  to  the  state  of  the  times  and  the 
want  of  men.  But  this  Master  John  Wyclif  trans- 
lated it  out  of  Latin  into  English,  and  thus  laid  it 
more  open  to  the  laity  and  to  women,  who  can  read, 


INTRODUCTION.  XllI 

even  to  those  of  them,  who  had  best  understanding. 
And  in  this  way  the  gospel  pearl  is  cast  abroad  and 
trodden  under  foot  of  swine,  and  that  which  was  be- 
fore precious  both  to  clergy  and  laity,  is  rendered,  as 
it  were,  the  common  jest  of  both."  But  it  seems  as  if 
he  need  not  have  been  so  troubled  about  this  diffusion 
of  the  Scriptures  in  English,  for  though  the  circulation 
was  considerable,  and  large  prices  were  paid  even  for 
fragments  of  the  book,  there  was  hardly  a  possibility 
that  the  common  people  could  be  very  widely  affected 
by  it,  since  a  single  copy  cost  about  two  hundred  dol- 
lars. Wyclif  died  in  1384,  and  six  years  later  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  suppress  his  translation  by  a  bill  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  which,  however,  was  not  successful. 
Almost  a  whole  century  passed  away.  The  oppo- 
sition to  translations  on  the  part  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  grew  greater  with  each  year.  In  1408  it 
was  resolved  by  the  Convocation  of  Oxford :  "  It  is  a 
dangerous  thing  to  translate  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture 
out  of  one  tongue  into  another.  .  .  We  therefore 
decree  and  ordain,  that  no  man  henceforth  by  his  own 
authority  translate  any  text  of  the  Scriptures  into 
English  or  any  other  tongue  by  way  of  a  book,  pam- 
phlet, or  treatise,  and  that  no  man  read  any  such  book, 
pamphlet,  or  treatise  now  lately  composed  in  the  time 
of  Wyclif  ...  upon  pain  of  the  greater  excommuni- 
cation, until  the  said  translation  be  approved  by  the 
ordinary  of  the  j^lace,  or,  if  the  case  so  require,  by  the 
council    provincial."*     A   strange    enactment,    when 

*  Historic  Origin  of  the  Bible  :  Bissell.  Foxe's  Acts  and  Mon- 
uments. 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

placed  by  the  side  of  the  labors  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, in  which  Oxford  has  borne  such  large  share,  and  by 
which  the  Revised  Version  is  issued  under  the  Oxford 
imprint.  But  while  the  opposition  thus  increased,  the 
desire  upon  the  part  of  the  people  also  grew.  Upon 
the  Continent  Biblical  studies  rapidly  advanced,  and 
all  over  Europe  the  thought  of  the  people  was  coming 
to  that  condition  which  made  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation possible.  He  would  be  a  bold  man,  however, 
who  should  dare  to  face  priestly  opposition  and  at- 
tempt to  carry  on  the  work  of  giving  the  Bible  to 
the  people  in  their  native  tongue.  But  the  bold  man 
was  found. 

About  the  year  1484,  "  the  faithful  minister  and  con- 
stant martyr  of  Christ,"*  William  Tyndale,  was  born 
in  Gloucestershire.  His  education,  acquired  both  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  fitted  him  in  a  peculiar  manner 
for  the  great  work  of  his  life.  In  1523  he  went  to 
London  in  the  hope  of  receiving  assistance  by  which 
he  could  carry  out  his  great  plan  of  translating  the 
New  Testament.  Meeting  with  no  encouragement, 
but  opposed  at  every  step,  he  left  England  in  1524  for 
Hamburg.  He  was  destined  never  to  return.  Upon 
the  Continent  he  applied  himself  with  enthusiasm  to 
his  work.  Even  there  he  met  with  great  difficulties. 
Intelligence  of  his  undertaking  was  conveyed  to  Eng- 
land, and  emissaries  were  sent  forth  to  dog  his  foot- 
steps and  hinder  his  attempt.  Fleeing  from  city  to 
city,  and  often  risking  his  life  through  his  devotion  to 
his  task,  living  under  an  assumed  name,  he  pursued 

*  Foxe's  Acts  and  Monuments. 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

his  labors  during  two  years,  and  at  the  end  of  this 
time  had  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament  ready  for 
publication  in  English.  He  had  already  issued  the 
Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Mark  in  1525  ;  but  now  in 
1526  the  whole  work  was  published, — the  first  printed 
English  Bible.  It  was  found  necessary  to  prepare  two 
editions  at  once,  because  the  first  edition,  in  quarto 
form,  had  been  greatly  prejudiced  in  England  before 
its  appearance  by  letters  sent  from  the  Continent  by  the 
enemies  of  translation,  describing  the  form  in  which  it 
was  to  appear,  and  warning  the  authorities  to  look  out 
for  it.  An  octavo  edition  was  therefore  prepared 
hastily  and  sent  off  before  the  quarto,  though*  both 
arrived  nearly  at  the  same  time.  The  quarto  edition, 
however,  occupied  the  attention  of  the  opponents,  and 
the  octavo  volumes  passed  easily  into  the  hands  of  the 
people.  Before  four  years  had  passed  six  editions  of 
Tyndale's  translation  had  been  issued,  all  on  the  Con- 
tinent, and  some  of  them  unauthorized  by  the  trans- 
lator ;  but  even  through  these  faulty  editions  the 
people  received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  in  their  own 
tongue,  and  the  popular  acquaintance  with  the  Scrip- 
tures became  daily  more  obnoxious  to  the  party  in 
power.  The  volumes  were  seized  and  burned  wherever 
they  could  be  discovered,  and  many  possessing  them 
were  imprisoned  and  punished ;  but  such  measures 
only  inflamed  the  public  desire  to  see  the  pro- 
scribed book,  and  the  importations  largely  increased. 
At  last  it  was  found  that  government  opposition  was 
useless,  and  a  combination  of  influences  occasioned  an 
entire  change  of  policy,  so  that  the  work  of  supplying 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

the  peoj^le  with  an  English  Bible  was  patronized  by 
the  government  itself.  This  result  was  not  gained, 
however,  until  martyrdom  had  sealed  the  efforts  of 
the  heroic  Tyndale.  One  of  his  assistants,  John  Frith, 
who  had  been  enticed  to  England,  was  burned  at  the 
stake  in  1533,  and  Tyndale  himself  was  finally  en- 
trajDped  by  emissaries  of  the  English  government  upon 
the  Continent,  and,  by  the  cooperation  of  the  author- 
ities of  Brussels,  was  condemned  for  heresy,  and 
strangled  and  burnt  at  the  stake  near  that  city  in  1536. 
Tyndale  was  at  rest,  but  his  work  went  on.  Under 
the  great  change  in  its  policy  the  English  government 
found  it  still  inconvenient,  because  so  thoroughly  in- 
consistent with  its  previous  denunciations,  to  favor 
Tyndale's  translation.  A  new  version  was  therefore 
sought.  Miles  Coverdale,  a  scholar  of  eminent  abil- 
ities, and  known  to  have  already  prepared  himself  for 
such  special  work,  was  encouraged  to  make  a  transla- 
tion, which  should  not  only  receive  no  opposition  from 
the  government,  but  be  at  least  tacitly  favored.  In  a 
single  year's  labor  the  whole  Bible  was  produced  by 
Coverdale,  and  published  in  1535  ;  it  was  made  chiefly 
from  the  Vulgate  and  from  Luther's  German.  Other 
editions  followed  in  1537,  1539,  1550,  and  1553.  The 
version  is  chiefly  remarkable  as  the  means  by  which 
the  transition  was  effected  from  strenuous  opposition 
to  acknowledged  patronage  upon  the  part  of  the  gov- 
ernment. In  the  year  1537  the  Matthew's  Bible  ap- 
peared (revised  by  Richard  Taverner  in  1539),  and 
the  authorities  were  glad  to  assent  to  this  publication 
also  as  a  way  out  of  their  difliculties.     But  this  Bible 


INTRODUCTION.  XV  il 

was,  for  the  largest  part,  only  a  reprint  of  Tynd ale's 
work  thus  gathered  together  and  issued  as  a  complete 
Bible  for  the  first  time.  It  was  even  enthusiastically 
welcomed  by  the  royal  party,  and  though  Tyndale's 
initials  stood  at  the  close  of  the  Old  Testament,  they 
were  either  unnoticed,  or  purposely  ignored,  and  the 
publication  was  given  a  special  royal  license.  Large 
numbers  of  this  Bible  were  sold,  but  of  course  it  foimd 
its  enemies,  who  revealed  its  real  origin,  and  it  was 
found  necessary  to  meet  their  attacks  by  a  preparation 
of  another  edition.  The  Great  Bible  was  prepared. 
Coverdale,  and  several  other  scholars,  were  employed 
in  the  work,  which  was  not  a  fresh  translation  from 
original  documents,  but  merely  a  revision  of  the  Mat- 
thew's Bible,  with  reference  to  a  recent  Latin  transla- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  Hebrew,  and  to  the  Vulgate, 
the  Latin  of  Erasmus,  and  the  Complutensian  Bible, 
described  hereafter  in  the  text  of  this  book.*  This 
Great  Bible  became  known  also  as  Cranmer's  Bible, 
because  he  wrote  a  preface  to  certain  editions.  The 
work  was  very  large  and  costly,  and  could  not  meet 
with  such  popular  favor  as  had  been  granted  to  former 
publications. 

The  reign  of  Edward  VI.  favored  the  free  cii'cu- 
lation  of  the  Scriptures  and  many  editions  were  issued, 
but  the  accession  of  Bloody  Mary  to  the  throne,  with 
the  exaltation  of  Romanism  to  political  power  in  Eng- 
land, brought  opposition  to  the  Scriptures  in  the  com- 
mon tongue  once  more  to  the  front.  Multitudes  of 
Protestant  Christians  were  exiled  or  slain ;  but  perse- 

*  See  page  53. 


XVlll  INTRODUCTION. 

cution,  as  always,  only  increased  the  zeal  of  the  suffer- 
ers. Geneva  was  the  resort  of  many  who  fled  to  the 
Continent,  and  here  a  new  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  was  made  and  published  in  1557,  followed 
by  the  Old  Testament  in  1560.  This  Genevan  Bible, 
prepared  under  the  influence  of  the  Protestant  com- 
munity in  the  Swiss  city,  was  furnished  with  Calvin- 
istic  notes  and  gained  a  wide  circulation,  receiving 
special  favor  from  the  dissenting  party,  and  becoming 
by  far  the  most  popular  Bible  in  England.  There  was 
even  danger  that  it  would  supersede  the  Great  Bible, 
which  was  the  only  authorized  edition,  in  the  pulpits 
of  the  churches.  To  meet  this  danger,  and  to  make 
the  Great  Bible  more  popular,  a  new  revision  of  it  was 
made  called  the  Bishops'  Bible ;  but  it  did  not  supplant 
the  Genevan  version  in  the  favor  of  the  people,  though  it 
was  recognized  as  the  standard  of  the  English  Church. 

In  addition  to  these  Bibles  there  now  appeared  a 
work  known  by  two  names,  and  issued  in  self-defence 
by  the  party  that  had  most  bitterly  and  persistently 
opposed  the  Scriptures  in  the  common  tongue.  The 
Romanists  themselves,  finding  that  the  great  move- 
ment for  translations  had  swept  beyond  their  power, 
prepared  a  special  translation  to  be  used  by  the  faith- 
ful. The  New  Testament  was  completed  at  Rheims 
in  1582,  and  the  Old  Testament,  after  long  delay,  at 
Douay  in  1609,  and  the  work  was  accomplished  by  the 
Romanists  who  had  fled  from  England  upon  the  acces- 
sion of  Elizabeth  ;  its  basis  was  the  Vulgate,  and  it  is 
known  as  the  Rhemish  and  Douay  Bible. 

These  brief  outlines  of  the  English  versions,  previ- 


introductio:n^.  xix 

ous  to  the  appearance  of  that  of  King  James,  have 
been  sketched  by  no  means  as  an  adequate  portrayal 
of  the  subject,  but  only  to  show  what  was  the  true 
character  of  the  version  which  has  been  so  long  in  the 
hands  of  all  people  who  speak  the  English  language. 
It  was  out  of  the  strife  between  the  Genevan  Bible 
and  the  Bishops'  Bible,  with  perhaps  certain  j^olitical 
considerations  of  James  I.,  that  the  translation  gen- 
erally called  by  his  name  arose.  A  strong  desire  to 
unite,  if  possible,  the  discordant  parties  led  to  an  at- 
tempt to  make  "  one  uniform  translation,  and  this  to 
be  done  by  the  best  learned  in  both  universities  (Cam- 
bridge and  Oxford) ;  after  them  to  be  revised  by  the 
bishops  and  the  chief  learned  of  the  church;  from 
them  to  be  presented  to  the  Privy  Council ;  and, 
lastly,  to  be  ratified  by  the  royal  authority ;  and  so 
the  whole  church  be  bound  to  it  and  no  other."  The 
hope  was  to  unite  parties  by  a  Bible  that  should  be 
popular  with  each,  and  the  work  was  to  be  based  upon 
the  already  existing  translations,  diligently  compared 
with  each  other  and  revised  with  reference  to  such 
other  authorities  as  could  be  obtained.  The  Puritan 
party  was  represented  by  its  ablest  scholars,  and  the 
Church  party  by  its  worthiest  members.  The  Bishops' 
Bible  was  to  be  followed,  with  as  few  alterations  as 
fidelity  to  the  originals  would  permit,  though  Tyn- 
dale's,  Matthew's,  Coverdale's,  the  Great  Bible,  and 
the  Genevan,  were  also  especially  mentioned  as  of 
permissible  influence  in  the  work.  It  will  thus  be 
seen  that  the  authorized  version  of  King  James 
was  in  a  large  measure  dependent  upon  the  English 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

Bibles  that  have  been  thus  far  sketched  in  these 
pages. 

KincT  James's  Version  was  issued  in  1611.  It  need 
not  be  described ;  it  is  so  familiar  to  everyone.  But 
the  mere  mention  of  the  date  at  which  it  appeared 
should  be  enough  to  suggest  several  reasons  why  a 
revision  of  it  is  desirable  at  the  present  time.  The 
vast  advance  in  Biblical  scholarshij)  during  the  last 
two  centuries ;  the  discovery  of  ancient  documents, 
as  related  in  the  following  pages ;  and  the  drift  and 
change  of  the  English  language  itself  in  the  long  inter- 
val indicate  the  principal  reasons  why  a  Revised  Eng- 
lish Bible  is  now  necessary. 

To  consider  these  reasons  a  little  more  fully,  the 
change  in  the  English  language  itself  may  well  hold 
the  attention.  Christian  affection  has  indeed  become 
strongly  fixed  upon  the  very  words  of  the  authorized 
version  so  long  in  possession  of  the  Church,  and  any 
verbal  changes  may  at  first  appear  very  unwelcome  to 
many,  whose  thoughts  have  dwelt  fondly  upon  the 
quaint  and  formal  methods  of  expression  employed  in 
the  familiar  pages.  But  if  such  a  prejudice  were 
suffered  to  enter  into  the  question  of  revision,  it  would 
militate  against  any  improvement  at  all;  the  beloved 
"Authorized  Version"  Avould  itself  never  have  been 
made,  had  such  an  objection  been  allowed.  Is  the 
Bible  of  to-day  any  dearer,  or  more  sacred  to  the 
modern  Christian,  than  were  Wyclif  s  and  Tyndale's 
to  those  who  risked  imprisonment  and  death  for  the 
sake  of  possessing  them?  But  no  one  would  assert, 
that  the  greatest   love  for  those  versions  or  any  of 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI 

their  successors  would  have  been  a  sufficient  reason  for 
continuing  their  texts  until  now.  The  English  lan- 
guage has  not  changed  so  greatly  since  the  time  of  the 
"  authorized  version,"  as  it  did  in  the  interval  between 
that  and  the  period  of  Tyndale's  work ;  and  yet  this 
reason  for  revision  is  very  cogent.  A  few  examj^les 
may  be  given.  The  word  "  carriages,"  for  instance,  in 
Acts  xxi.  15,  renders  the  verse  almost  unintelligible 
to-day,  though  when  it  was  written  :  "  So  Ave  took  up 
our  carriages  and  went  up  to  Jerusalem,"  probably 
every  English  reader  would  have  known  what  was 
meant.  Again  the  word  "  bowels  "  was  good  English 
in  1611,  for  the  same  thought  expressed  now  by  the 
word  hearty  and  in  Phil.  ii.  1,  "If  any  bowels  and 
mercies,"  and  in  at  least  eight  other  places  in  the  New 
Testament,  it  signified  that  affection  which  would  now 
be  regarded  as  proceeding  from  a  merciful  heart.  The 
word  "  let "  in  1611  was  equivalent  to  hinder  or  retard  \ 
but  in  1881  it  means  just  the  opposite,  to  permit. 
"Conversation"  has  gained  a  restricted  meaning 
compared  with  that  which  it  has  in  the  authorized 
version.  "Trow"  is  no  longer  used  for  believe^  nor 
"  wist "  and  "  wot "  for  Jcnow^  nor  "  holpen  "  for  helped, 
nor  "  sodden  "  for  boiled,  nor  "  leasing  ^'  for  lying,  nor 
"  bewray  "  for  betray.  "  Astonied  "  and  "  magnifical " 
and  many  similar  forms  have  passed  entirely  out  of 
use,  and  the  employment  of  the  word  "  damnation  "  in 
1  Cor.  xi.  29,  may  represent  a  similar  misapi^lication 
of  words  in  a  multitude  of  cases,  when  judged  accord- 
ing to  the  modern  meaning  of  the  term.  It  may  be 
said,  indeed,  that  the  English  language  is  a  very  dif- 


XXll  INTRODUCTION. 

ferent  tongue  from  what  it  was  two  hundred  and 
seventy  years  ago  ;  so  that  there  would  be  good  reason 
for  a  revision  of  the  Bible  07i  that  account  alone,  even 
if  the  version  of  1611  were  absolutely  perfect  in  every 
other  respect. 

But  as  already  intimated,  there  are  many  other  faults 
in  the  "  authorized  version,"  which  the  passage  of  time 
and  the  great  advancement  of  critical  scholarship  have 
revealed.  There  are  wrong  translations  ;  there  is  the 
use  of  different  English  words  to  represent  the  same 
Greek  word,  and  the  employment  of  the  same  English 
word  in  different  senses,  misleading  the  reader.  In 
Kom.  iv.,  for  example,  the  same  Greek  word,  which  is 
the  key  to  the  argument  of  the  chapter,  is  translated 
"  count "  twice,  "  imjDute  "  six  times,  and  "  i*eckon  " 
three  times.  In  Rom.  vii.  7,  one  Greek  word  is  trans- 
lated with  the  two  meanings  of  "  lust "  and  "  covet." 
In  Rom.  viii.  19-23,  one  word  is  translated  "creature" 
three  times,  and  "  creation  "  only  once.  In  the  use  of 
proper  names  there  is  a  great  diversity  of  spelling  so 
that  the  uninitiated  would  hardly  recognize  Isaiah  in 
Esaias,  or  Ezekiel  in  Ezekias,  or  Hezekiah  in  the  same 
name.  Korah  as  Core,  Elijah  as  Elias,  Elisha  as 
Eli&eus,  and  very  many  others  under  a  similar  change 
of  name,  almost  assume  two  personalities.  These  are 
but  a  very  few  of  an  immense  number  of  defects,  which 
may  easily  be  remedied.  But  passing  by  all  of  these, 
the  great  reason  for  revision  exists  in  the  nature  of  the 
Greek  text  from  which  the  version  of  King  James  was 
made,  as  compared  with  the  present  knowledge  of  the 
original  Greek,  which  the  Apostles  wrote.     It  is  the 


INTRODUCTION.  XXlll 

attempt  of  the  following  pages  to  expound  as  fully  as 
may  be  desirable  in  a  popular  work  this  greatest  rea- 
son for  the  revision  of  the  Christian  Scriptures.  The 
Story  of  the  Manuscripts  is  after  all  the  most  impor- 
tant of  all  the  indications,  that  the  old  English  Bible 
should  be  conformed  to  the  better  evidence,  now  in  our 
hands,  of  what  the  Prophets  and  Apostles  wrote.  In 
1611  the  scholars  of  England  suffered  from  a  j^overty 
of  materials  in  comparison  with  the  resources  now  at 
command.  It  has  already  been  shown,  that  the  real 
basis  of  the  "  authorized  version  "  then  made  was  the 
version  of  Tyndale.  The  other  versions  were  also  em- 
ployed, but  they,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  also  the 
lineal  descendants  of  Tyndale's  Bible,  as  well  as  its 
successors  in  time.  But  if  we  regard  the  original 
Greek  and  Hebrew  texts  from  which  these  Bibles  were 
made,  we  see  that  all  of  those  texts  put  together  would 
not  equal  in  value  one  or  two  manuscripts,  that  have 
been  discovered,  or  thoroughly  investigated,  since  that 
time.  Tyndale  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  trans- 
lating directly  from  the  original  languages,  and  he  had 
the  opportunity  of  using  several  editions  of  the  Hebrew 
of  the  Old  Testament,  which  had  been  published  be- 
fore his  labors  were  begun,  and  Avhich  were  accorded 
various  degrees  of  value,  one  or  two  of  them  being  in 
high  esteem.  But  for  the  Greek  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, it  is  probable  that  the  best  that  could  be  done 
was  to  use  the  text  of  Erasmus,  which  he  had  hastily 
prepared  from  manuscripts  at  Basle,  few  in  number 
and,  with  one  exception,  of  comparatively  little  critical 
value.    The  Complutensian  text  was  already  prepared. 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

but  it  is  not  definitely  known  from  what  manuscriiJts, 
and  it  is  doubtful  if  Tyndale  made  any  use  of  it.  As 
for  the  other  versions,  we  have  seen  how  in  many  in- 
stances, the  Vulgate  and  other  Latin  texts  were  influ- 
ential in  their  preparation.  The  Genevan  Bible  was 
probably  as  independent  as  any,  of  other  versions. 
Previous  to  its  issue  the  Greek  text  of  Ste23hens  had 
been  prepared  (1550),  and  could  not  have  failed  to 
guide  the  translation.  And  when  at  last  the  "  author- 
ized version"  of  King  James  was  made  in  1611,  the 
Greek  text  of  Beza  had  been  added  to  the  resources 
at  hand.  But  the  pages  of  this  book  describe  the  ad- 
vance that  has  been  made  since  that  day.  The  great 
Vatican  manuscript  has  been  published  and  studied ; 
the  Sinaitic  manuscript  has  been  discovered  ;  a  multi- 
tude of  other  documents,  some  of  them  of  nearly  equal 
importance  with  these,  have  been  thoroughly  investi- 
gated ;  the  whole  science  of  textual  criticism  has  been 
revolutionized,  and  established  upon  principles  univer- 
sally recognized  as  correct  and  safe ;  in  a  word,  Chris- 
tendom to-day  has  a  far  greater  knowledge  of  what 
the  writers  of  its  Scriptures  actually  wrote,  than  it 
had  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago.  It  has  a  far  purer 
Greek  text  of  the  New  Testament,  and  a  deeper 
knowledge  of  that  of  the  Old  Testament,  than  when 
the  scholars  of  King  James's  time  produced  the  Eng- 
lish version,  so  long  dear  to  the  church.  And  the 
question  is  therefore  of  the  greatest  force :  Shall  not 
the  English  Bible,  as  well  as  the  Bible  in  the  original 
tongues,  be  published  with  the  most  exact  adherence 
to  the  very  text  that  flowed  from  the  pens  of  the  first 


INTKODUCTION.  XXY 

•writers,  and  thus  the  purity  of  the  word  be  preserved 
for  all  generations  of  those  who  speak  the  English 
tongue  ? 

For  more  than  a  decade  previous  to  the  year  1870 
the  question  of  a  revision  of  the  English  Bible  had 
been  agitated  upon  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  New 
translations  by  single  scholars  and  by  Bible  societies 
had  appeared  from  time  to  time,  but  from  the  circum- 
stances attending  their  publication  they  could  never 
come  into  general  acceptance  and  use  in  the  churches. 
More  than  once  in  England  the  royal  favor  had  been 
sought  for  the  scheme  of  revising  King  James's  ver- 
sion, but  the  plan  had  been  defeated  from  various 
causes.  In  the  year  1870,  on  February  10,  both 
Houses  of  the  Convocation  of  Canterbury  united  in  a 
resolution  appointing  a  committee  to  consider  the  de- 
sirableness of  revising  the  authorized  version,  "  whether 
by  marginal  notes  or  otherwise."  This  committee 
reported  upon  May  11,  that  such  a  revision  was  desir- 
able ;  that  it  should  be  so  conducted  as  to  provide  for 
marginal  renderings,  and  also  for  such  emendations  in 
the  English  text  itself  as  might  be  deemed  necessary ; 
that  the  work  should  not  be  of  the  nature  of  an  entirely 
new  translation,  but  that  only  such  alterations  of  the 
language  of  King  James's  version  should  be  made  as 
might  be  absolutely  necessary,  and  that  even  these 
changes  should  preserve  the  general  style  of  the  old 
version.  The  committee  also  advised  that  the  work 
should  be  done  by  members  of  the  Convocation  espe- 
cially appointed  for  the  purpose,  who  should  have 
permission   to  invite  the  aid    of    "  any  eminent  for 


XXVI  INTRODUCTION. 

BcholarsHp,  to  whatever  nation  or  religious  body  they 
may  belong."  This  rej^ort  was  followed  by  the  choice 
of  a  committee  to  arrange  a  definite  plan  for  the  work 
and  carry  it  forward  to  its  completion. 

The  committee  thus  formed  at  once  took  measures  to 
complete  its  organization  by  the  invitation  to  other 
eminent  scholars  to  join  them  in  the  work,  and  by  the 
choice  of  officers  and  the  division  into  two  companies^ 
the  one  for  the  Old  Testament,  the  other  for  the  New 
Testament.  The  following  rules  were  adopted  to  guide 
them  in  their  labors  : — 

1.  To  introduce  as  few  alterations  as  possible  into 
the  text  of  the  Authorized  Version  consistently  with 
faithfulness. 

2.  To  limit,  as  far  as  possible,  the  expression  of 
such  alterations  to  the  language  of  the  Authorized  and 
earlier  English  version. 

8.  Each  company  to  go  twice  over  the  portion  to 
be  revised,  once  provisionally,  the  second  time  finally, 
and  on  principles  of  voting  as  hereinafter  provided. 

4.  That  the  text  to  be  adopted  be  that  for  which 
the  evidence  is  decidedly  j^reponderating ;  and  that 
when  the  text  so  adopted  differs  from  that  from  which 
the  Authorized  Version  was  made,  the  alteration  be 
indicated  in  the  margin. 

5.  To  make  or  retain  no  change  in  the  text  on  the 
second  final  revision  by  each  company,  except  two- 
thirds  of  those  present  approve  of  the  same,  but  on  the 
first  revision  to  decide  by  simple  majorities. 

6.  In  every  case  of  proposed  alteration  that  may  have 
given  rise  to  discussion,  to  defer  the  voting  thereupon 


INTRODUCTION.  XXVU 

till  the  next  meeting,  whensoever  the  same  shall  be 
required  by  one-third  of  those  present  at  the  meeting, 
such  intended  vote  to  be  announced  in  the  notice  of 
the  next  meeting. 

7.  To  revise  the  headings  of  chapters,  pages,  para- 
graphs, italics,  and  punctuation. 

8.  To  refer,  on  the  part  of  each  company,  when 
considered  desirable,  to  divines,  scholars  and  literary 
men,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  for  their  opinions. 

It  was  further  determined  that  the  work  of  each 
company  be  communicated  to  the  other  as  it  is 
completed,  in  order  that  there  may  be  as  little  devi- 
ation from  uniformity  in  language  as  possible. 

The  special  or  bye-rules  for  each  company  were  as 
follows  : — 

1.  To  make  all  corrections  in  writing  previous  to 
the  meeting. 

2.  To  place  all  the  corrections  due  to  textual  con- 
siderations on  the  left-hand  margin,  and  all  other 
corrections  on  the  right-hand  margin. 

.  3.  To  transmit  to  the  chairman,  in  case  of  being 
unable  to  attend,  the  corrections  proposed  in  the  por- 
tion agreed  upon  for  consideration. 

The  New  Testament  division  of  the  committee  met 
June  22,  1870,  at  Westminster.  It  was  thought  emi- 
nently proper  that  the  inception  of  a  work  so  great 
should  be  accompanied  by  the  solemn  rite  of  the  Com- 
munion, and  accordingly  the  whole  body,  with  a  single 
exception,  partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  Chapel 
of  Henry  VII.  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Instantly  a 
bitter  prejudice  was  excited  by  the  act.     Canon  Jebb 


XXVlll  INTRODUCTION. 

resigned  his  position  on  the  committee.  The  English 
papers  blazed  forth  in  condemnation  of  such  a  breach 
of  ecclesiastical  usage,  while  not  a  few  of  the  public 
prints  supported  the  committee.  More  than  fifteen 
hundred  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England  signed  a 
protest  to  be  presented  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, denying  that  the  Communion  should  be  adminis- 
tered thus  to  "  teachers  of  various  sects."  But  the 
storm  of  objections  soon  died  away,  and  the  work 
quietly  progressed. 

It  was  soon  found  advantageous  to  confer  with 
American  scholars,  and  using  the  liberty  granted  in 
the  outset  by  the  Convocation,  the  committee  opened 
negotiations  for  the  formation  of  a  joint-committee 
upon  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  assist  in  the  whole 
work.  Dean  Stanley  sent  a  communication  to  Dr. 
Philip  S chaff  of  Kew  York  requesting  co-operation, 
and  Dean  Howson  was  present  at  the  first  meeting  for 
the  organization  of  an  American  committee  in  Decem- 
ber, 1871.  The  completion  of  the  American  division 
occupied  nearly  a  year,  but  on  October  4,  1872,  the 
final  organization  was  effected  and  the  work  began. 
When  the  American  committee  was  thus  completed, 
copies  of  what  the  English  division  had  already  done 
were  put  into  their  hands,  —  Genesis,  Exodus,  and 
Leviticus,  and  the  first  three  Gospels.  It  was  under- 
stood that  the  utmost  secrecy  as  to  the  results  of  their 
work  should  be  preserved  until  the  whole  should  be 
finished.  The  divisions  of  the  committee  have  been  in 
constant  correspondence,  and  during  the  ten  years  since 
the  inception  of  the  undertaking,  the  labors  of  these 


INTEODUCTION.  XXIX 

scholars,  wholly  unrewarded  except  by  their  own  joys 
in  the  study  and  the  consciousness  that  they  were  con- 
ferring a  great  benefit  upon  their  fellow-men,  have 
progressed  with  harmony  and  success.  The  New 
Testament  was  completed  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1879,  and  is  published  simultaneously  in  England, 
Scotland,  America,  and  Australia,  upon  the  seven- 
teenth of  May,  1881.  The  Old  Testament  will  prob- 
ably be  published  in  1883. 

The  scholars  engaged  in  this  great  work  of  revision 
are  named  in  the  following  list.  An  asterisk  (*)  marks 
the  names  of  those  who  have  died  previous  to  the 
publication  of  the  New  Testament ;  an  obelisk  (t)  in- 
dicates those  who  have  resigned,  and  in  the  case  of  the 
few,  who  resigned  immediately  after  their  appointment, 
so  that  they  did  not  really  enter  into  the  labors  of  the 
committee,  the  names  are  also  enclosed  in  brackets. 

English  Company  upon  the  Old  Testament. 

*Dr.  C.  Thirlwall,  Bishop  of  St.  David's. 

Dr.  A.  Ollivant,  Bishop  of  Llandaff, 

Dr.  E.  H.  Browne,  Bishop  of  Ely,  later  of  Winchester. 
fDr.  C.  Wordsworth,  BishoiD  of  Lincoln. 

Dr.  A.  C.  Hervey,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells. 

Dr.  R.  P.  Smith,  Dean  of  Canterbury. 

Dr.  J.  J.  S.  Perowne,  Dean  of  Peterborough. 

Rev.  B.  Harrison,  Archdeacon  of  Maidstone;    Canon   of 

Canterbury. 
*Rev.  H.  J.  Rose,  Archdeacon  of  Bedford. 
*Dr.  W.  Selwyn,  Canon  of  Ely. 
•f  [Dr.  J.  Jebb,  Canon  of  Hereford.] 

Dr.  W.  L.  Alexander,  Professor  of  Theology,  Edinburgh. 

Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Edinburgh. 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

Dr.  G.  Douglas,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Glasgow. 

Dr.  J.  D.  Geden,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Manchester. 

Dr.  F.  W.  Gotch,  Principal  of  Baptist  College,  Bristol. 

Dr.  S.  Leathes,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  London. 
fDr.  E.  H.  Plumptre,  Professor  of  N.  T.  Exegesis,  London. 

Rev.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  Fellow  and  Lecturer  (Hebrew),  Ox- 
ford. 

Dr.  F.  Chance,  London. 

Mr.  T.  Chenery,  Professor  of  Arabic,  Oxford. 

Mr.  R.  L.  Bensly,  Fellow  and  Lecturer  (Hebrew),  Cam- 
bridge. 

Mr.  S.  R.  Driver,  Tutor,  Oxford. 

Rev.  C.  J.  Elliott,  late  Fellow,  Cambridge. 

Dr.  F.  Field,  Norwich. 

Dr.  C.  D.  Ginsburg,  Editor  of  Canticles,  etc.,  Berks. 

Dr.  W.  Kay,  late  Principal  of  Bishop's  College,  Calcutta. 

Dr.  J.  R.  Lumby,  Fellow,  Cambridge. 

Rev.  A.  H.  Sayce,  Fellow  and  Tutor,  Oxford. 

Dr.  W.  Wright,  Professor  of  Arabic,  Cambridge. 

Rev.  W.  R.  Smith,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Aberdeen. 
*Dr.  P.  Fairbairn,  Principal  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow. 
*Dr.  B.  Davies,    Professor    of   Hebrew,   Regent's    Park, 

London. 
*Rev.  J.  McGill,  Professor  of  Oriental  Languages,  St.  An- 
drew's. 
*Rev.  D.  H.  Weir,  Professor  of  Oriental  Languages,  Glas- 
gow. 

Mr.  W.  A.  Wright,  Bursar  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

Rev.  J.  Birrell,  Professor  of  Oriental  Languages,  St.  An- 
drew's. 

American  Company  upon  the  Old  Testament. 

Dr.  W.  H.  Green,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Princeton. 
Dr.  G.  E.  Da}^  Professor  of  Hebrew,  New  Haven. 
Dr.  T.  J.  Conant,  American  Bible  Union,  Brooklyn. 
Dr.  T.  W.  Chambers,  Collegiate  Reformed  Church,  New 
York. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXI 

Dr.  C.  A.  Aiken,  Professor  of  Apologetics,  Princeton. 

Dr.  J.  DeWitt,  Professor  of  Biblical  Criticism,  New  Bruns- 
wick. 

Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth,  Vice  Provost,  Univ.  Penn.,  Philadelphia. 

Dr.  C.  ]\I.  Mead,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Andover. 

Dr.  G.  E.  Hare,  Professor  of  Biblical  Learning,  Philadel- 
phia. 

Dr.  J.  Packard,  Professor  of  Biblical  Literature,  Alexandria. 
*Dr.  Tayler  Lewis,  Professor  of  Greek  and  Hebrew, 
Schenectady. 

Dr.  H.  Osgood,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Rochester. 

Dr.  C.  E.  Stowe,  Hartford. 

Dr.  J.  Strong,  Professor  of  Theology,  Madison. 

Dr.  C.  V.  A.  Van  Dyck,  Missionary,  Beirut,  Syria. 

English  Company  upon  the  New  Testament. 

*Dr.  S.  Wilberforce,  Bishop  of  Winchester. 

Dr.  C.  J.  Ellicott,  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol. 

Dr.  R.  C.  Trench,  Archbishop  of  Dublin. 

Dr.  G.  Moberly,  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 

Dr.  C.  Wordsworth,  Bishop  of  St.  Andrew's. 

Dr.  A.  P.  Stanley,  Dean  of  Westminster. 

Dr.  R.  Scott,  Dean  of  Rochester. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Blakesley,  Dean  of  Lincoln. 
*Dr.  H.  Alford,  Dean  of  Canterbury. 
fDr.  C.  Merivale,  Dean  of  Ely. 

Dr.  E.  H.  Bickersteth,  Dean  of  Lichfield. 

Dr.  W.  Lee,  Archdeacon  of  Dublin. 

Dr.  Edwin  Palmer,  Archdeacon  of  Oxford. 

Dr.  B.  F.  Westcott,  Canon  of  Peterborough. 

Dr.  B.  H.  Kennedy,  Canon  of  Ely  and  Professor  of  Greek. 
^cDr.  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  Bishop  of  Durham,  London. 
jDr.  F.  H.  A.  Scrivener,  Prebendary,  Hendon  Vicarage, 
London. 

Dr.  F.  J.  A.  Hort,  Fellow  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge. 

Dr.  G.  V.  Smith,  Caermarthen. 


XXXll  INTRODUCTION. 

Dr.  C.  J.  Vanghan,  Master  of  the  Temple,  London. 

Dr.  A.  Roberts,  Professor  of  Humanity,  St.  Andrew's. 

Dr.  W.  F.  Moulton,  Master  of  Ley's  School,  Cambridge. 

Dr.  D.  Brown,  Principal  Free  Church  College,  Aberdeen. 

Dr.  J.  Angus,  President  Baptist  College,  London. 

Dr.  S.  Newth,  Principal  of  New  College,  London. 
*Dr.  J.  Eadie,  Professor  of  Biblical  Literature,  Glasgow. 
*Dr.  S.  P.  Tregelles,  Critic  and  Editor,  Plymouth. 

Rev.  J.  Troutbeck,  AVestminster. 

Rev.  W.  G.  Humphry,  Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's,  London. 

Dr.  W.  Milligan,  Professor  of  Divinity,  Aberdeen. 

American  Company  upon  the  New  Testament. 
Dr.  T.  D.  Woolsey,  Ex-president  of  Yale  College,  New 

Haven. 
Dr.  J.  H.  Thayer,  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature,  Andover. 
Dr.  E.  Abbot,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Criticism,  Cam- 
bridge. 
Dr.  T.  Chase,  President  of  Haverford  College,  Philadelphia. 
Dr.  H.  Crosby,  Chancellor  of  New  York  University,  New 

York. 
Dr.  A.  C.  Kendrick,  Professor  of  Greek,  Rochester. 
*Dr.  H.  B.  Hackett,  Professor  of  N.  T.  Exegesis,  Rochester. 
Dr.  M.  B.  Riddle,  Professor  of  N.  T.  Exegesis,  Hartford. 
Dr.  A.  Lee,  Bishop  of  Delaware. 

Dr.  T.  Dwight,  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature,  New  Haven. 
Dr.  P.  Schaff,  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature,  New  York. 
*Dr.  C.  Hodge,  Professor  of  Theology,  Princeton. 
fDr.  W.  F.  Warren,  President  of  Boston  University,  Boston. 
Dr.  C.  Short,  New  York. 
*Dr.  E.  A.  Washburn,  New  York. 
Dr.  J.  K.  Burr,  Professor  Drew  Theological  Seminary, 

Madison,  N.  J. 
*Dr.  H.  B.  Smith,  Professor  of  Theology,  New  York. 
*Dr.  J.  Hadley,  Professor  of  Greek,  New  Haven. 
fDr.  G.  R.  Crooks,  New  York. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXlll 

The  larger  number  of  the  English  scholars  engaged 
in  the  work  are  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  the 
others  are  from  various  sects,  almost  every  denomi- 
nation having  its  representatives  upon  the  committee. 
Of  the  American  scholars  who  have  been  connected 
with  the  enterprise,  five  are  Episcopalians,  seven  Con- 
gregationalists,  six  Presbyterians,  four  Baptists,  four 
Methodists,  four  Reformed,  one  Unitarian,  one  Lu- 
theran, one  Friend,  —  the  whole  number,  with  the 
exception  of  Dr.  Van  Dyck  in  Syria. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  work  of  Revision  has 
had  the  broadest  basis,  and  that  the  best  resources  of 
the  Avhole  Church  have  been  bestowed  ujion  the  work. 

Dr.  Philij)  Schaff  has  been  the  President  of  the 
American  committee.  Dr.  William  H.  Green  the  Chair- 
man of  the  Old  Testament  division,  and  Ex-President 
Theodore  D.  Woolsey  Chairman  of  the  New  Testament 
division. 

It  is  not  a  new  Bible  which  is  thus  offered  to  the 
people.  It  is  the  old  Bible  —  even  the  old  English 
Bible,  with  all  its  excellencies  preserved,  with  only  its 
defects  removed.  Wherever  the  old  version  has  been 
loved,  the  revised  version  will  also  find  a  welcome,  — 
and  that  will  be  wherever  the  English  language  is 
spoken. 


THE 

STORY  OF  THE  MANUSCRIPTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    BOOK. 


"  There  is  but  one  Book."  The  words  have  become 
famous,  as  they  were  spoken  by  one,  who  was  himself 
the  renowned  author  of  many  books.  He  was  dying. 
He  had  asked  his  attendants  to  bring  him  the  book. 
Which  of  his  own  works  did  he  mean  ?  Which  of  the 
thousands  that  crowded  the  shelves  in  his  library? 
"  There  is  but  one  Book,"  he  said  ;  and  they  brought 
him  the  Bible. 

It  is  evident  that,  whether  the  Bible  be  regarded 
simply  with  respect  to  its  o^vn  character  or  with  refer- 
ence to  what  it  has  accomplished  in  the  world,  it  stands 
alone.  The  Yedas  of  the  Brahmins,  the  Zend  Avesta 
of  the  Persians,  the  writings  of  Laotse  and  Confucius, 
the  Koran  of  Mohammed,  yes,  even  the  more  wonder- 
ful remains  of  the  religious  literature  of  Egypt, — 
works  which  have  been  very  fully  opened  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  modern  world  through  the  labors 


2  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

of  learned  philologists  and  studious  missionaries, — 
must  all  stand  far  apart,  when  compared  with  the  He- 
brew and  Christian  Scriptures.  They  have,  indeed, 
many  admirable  precepts  ;  the  commandments  written 
in  many  of  them  are  in  some  jespects  as  perfectly 
righteous  as  the  code  of  Moses  itself ;  there  are  echoes 
of  eternal  and  universal  truth  ringing  through  their 
teachings ;  here  and  there  are  sayings  that  are  nearly 
identical  with  words  of  the  New  Testament ;  but  after 
all  no  candid  reader  can  turn  the  pages  even  of  these 
best  heathen  books  without  a  sigh,  for  he  will  wonder 
at  the  vapid  thought,  the  profitless  speculations,  the 
silly  dreams,  the  patent  falsities,  that  fill  so  large  a 
space  in  them,  and  it  will  be  hard  to  believe  that  mil- 
lions of  human  beings  have  really  sought  in  these  vol- 
umes the  truth  which  should  satisfy  the  cravings  of 
the  human  soul.  The  reader  of  the  Koran  wanders 
through  a  desert,  in  the  midst  of  whose  dreary  sands 
the  few  oases  are  as  conspicuous  as  those  that  dot  the 
path  of  the  caravan  in  the  arid  wastes  of  the  land  of 
Mohammed.  The  noblest  of  the  Vedic  hymns  rise 
high  indeed,  but  from  the  summits  of  thought  which 
they  attain,  the  eye  turns  away  with  longing  still,  until 
far  in  the  distance,  and  seeming  to  pierce  the  very 
blue  of  heaven  itself,  the  hymns  of  David,  the  songs  of 
Hebrew  seers,  the  lofty  poems  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
and  the  sweet,  strong  sayings  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  lift  their  glorious  heights  above  all  else.  We 
turn  from  the  best  that  the  religious  yearnings  of  men 
have  given  us,  and  as  page  after  page  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament and  the  New  Testament  are  turned,  we  find 


THE   BOOK.  3 

that  in  the  internal  character  of  these  books,  which 
forces  us  to  exclaim :  These  men  wrote  as  they  were 
moved  of  God.  Mohammed  may  have  received  his 
book  as  a  revelation  from  heaven,  but  its  character 
does  not  show  it.  Confucius,  Buddha,  may  have  held 
converse  with  powers  above  them,  but  the  pages  they 
gave  to  the  world  are  not  heavenly.  But  Moses  and 
David,  Isaiah  and  Malachi,  John  and  Paul,  —  these 
men  not  only  claimed,  but  their  writings  prove,  that 
they  held  communion  with  the  Deity.  There  is  but 
one  Book,  —  the  Book  that  is  made  up  of  these  books 
has  a  message  for  the  world  that  it  cannot  afford  to 
neglect.  And  experience  has  shown  through  almost 
nineteen  centuries  that  just  so  far  as  the  Book  has 
not  been  neglected,  it  has  vindicated  its  right  to  the 
first  place  in  the  literature  of  the  world  by  the  results 
which  have  invariably  followed  its  adoption.  It  has 
enlightened  every  nation  to  which  it  has  come,  and 
has  led  the  way  to  such  high  civilization  as  we  have 
to-day,  —  a  civilization  in  which  it  is  still  at  work  re- 
buking, encouraging,  teaching,  inspiring,  perfecting, 
until  the  ideal  shall  have  been  reached  in  the  full 
recognition  of  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man,  with 
all  our  life  fashioned  after  the  love  that  is  in  the  law 
of  the  Lord. 

And  yet  the  Book  must  not  be  worshipped.  It  is 
to  be  regretted,  that  upon  the  part  of  some  a  species 
of  idolatry  has  arisen,  in  which  the  Bible,  possibly  the 
English  Bible  of  King  James,  has  been  regarded  as 
a  thing,  to  which  no  error  could  attach,  and  which  is 
faultless  in  all  its  forms.     But,  as  we  have  shown  in 


4  THE   STORY    OF  THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

the  introduction,  the  need  of  revision  of  the  King 
James  version  is  apparent.  The  Bible  makes  no 
claim  to  worship,  and  such  bibliolatry  is  quite  foreign 
to  the  spirit  of  the  Scrii^tures.  It  is  claimed  that  those 
who  wrote  the  books  of  the  Bible  were  inspired  of  God 
to  do  that  work,  and  that  in  the  revelation  of  truth  to 
them,  and  the  recording  of  that  truth,  they  were  pre- 
served from  error.  But  this  can  be  claimed  only  for 
the  original  writings ;  it  cannot  be  asserted  either  of 
copies,  or  of  versions,  though  it  is  marvellous  how  God 
has  watched  over  the  transmission  of  His  Word  by 
these  means.  And,  moreover,  it  must  be  remembered, 
insj^iration  did  not  make  slaves  of  the  writers,  or  re- 
duce them  to  the  condition  of  mere  machines.  There 
is  the  impress  of  the  j^ersonality  of  each  one  upon  his 
work.  The  style  of  St.  Peter  is  not  that  of  St.  Mat- 
thew ;  the  fire  and  strength  of  St.  Paul  are  different 
from  the  fervency  that  glows  in  the  scriptures  of  St. 
John.  The  Bible  is  the  Book  of  God,  not  in  the  sense 
that  it  is  entirely  superhuman.  God  gave  it  through 
men  for  men,  and  even  in  its  original  documents  there 
must  have  been  everywhere  the  evidence  at  once  of  the 
divine  and  the  human  conjoined.  It  is  apparent  even 
in  the  internal  character  of  the  books ;  in  the  nature  of 
the  truth  taught,  and  in  the  progressiveness  of  the  rev- 
elation. The  book  was  to  be  for  all  men,  for  all  time. 
The  earlier  generations  of  men  must  have  their  records 
of  the  divine  wUl,  and  therefore  Moses  wrote,  and  yet 
he  wrote  in  such  a  way  that  the  latest  generations 
should  find  help  from  the  words  that  flowed  from  his 
pen.    But  manifestly  he  was  obliged  to  write  in  such  a 


THE   BOOK.  5 

manner  as  was  fitted  to  his  o^\ti  age,  and  neither  in  the 
language  nor  in  the  style  which  the  nineteenth  century 
might  demand.  The  prophets  chanted  their  messages 
to  the  people  of  their  day,  though  many  occult  sayings 
could  find  their  truest  fulfilment  only  at  a  later  time. 
Poets  sung  such  songs  as  arose  out  of  their  own  ex- 
perience, but  because  the  human  heart  always  beats 
with  the  same  passions,  and  the  human  life  always 
has  the  same  joys  and  woes,  their  songs  are  the  expres- 
sion of  our  religious  feeling  even  now.  And  at  last 
the  Christ  came.  His  life  was  to  be  recorded.  Evi- 
dently it  could  not  have  been  written  until  it  had 
been  lived,  and  the  most  natural  time  for  it  to  be 
written  was  not  long  after  it  was  lived.  So  the  Gos- 
pels cam*e  into  existence,  the  Word  of  God,  and  yet 
arising,  in  one  sense,  naturally  out  of  the  demands  of 
the  time  under  the  Providence  which  shapes  all  things. 
Then  the  doctrines  of  the  Christ  were  to  be  unfolded, 
and  His  Church  to  be  established  in  the  world ;  the 
Apostles  did  their  part ;  epistles  went  forth  from 
them  to  the  Christians ;  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  in 
founding  the  churches  were  recorded  as  a  history  of 
the  beginnings  of  Christianity ;  the  strange  book  of 
the  Revelation  was  written.  And  then  a  multitude 
of  other  writings  followed,  not  insi3ired,  inferior  in 
character  and  diverse  in  purpose,  such  as  men  write 
for  men  in  the  communication  merely  of  their  own 
thoughts  and  feelings. 

How,  then,  did  the  Bible  come  to  be  what  it  is? 
Why  were  just  these  books  included  in  the  same  col- 
lection ?    Why  not  more  ?    Or,  possibly,  why  not  less  ? 


6  THE    STORY   OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

In  answer  to  these  questions,  pertinent  indeed,  there 
can  be  nothing  more  said  here  concerning  the  Old 
Testament,  than  that  the  collection  of  Hebrew  writings 
had  long  been  complete  at  the  time  of  the  Saviom', 
and  was  accepted  by  Him  as  of  sacred  authority. 
While  He  guarded  against  the  false  views  of  Phar- 
isees and  Scribes,  and  repudiated  the  cumbrous  enact- 
ments of  their  oral  law.  He  was  always  careful  to 
acknowledge  the  power  of  their  Scrij^tures,  as  a  whole, 
and  there  is  hardly  a  j^art  of  the  Old  Testament  to 
which  He  did  not  directly  appeal  in  teaching  the 
people  concerning  Himself  and  the  kingdom  of  right- 
eousness in  the  world.  But  we  have  to  do  in  these 
pages  especially  with  the  New  Testament,  and  it  is 
of  the  greatest  importance  that  correct  views  of  the 
Christian  Scrij^tures  should  be  held.  The  New  Testa- 
ment, like  the  Old,  was  a  thing  of  growth.  It  was  not 
manufactured  in  a  day,  nor  by  one  hand,  as  already 
said.  And  yet  the  inspiration  of  God  was  the  origin 
of  it  in  all  its  parts,  just  as  truly  as  if  the  completed 
volume  had  been  flung  down  from  flaming  clouds,  or 
given  to  the  Apostles  as  the  law  was  to  Moses  amid  the 
peaks  of  Sinai.  And  this  is  the  answer  to  the  ques- 
tions. Why  not  more  books  ?  or  why  so  many  as  these  ? 
These  and  no  others  constitute  the  volume,  because 
these  and  no  others  bear  the  marks  of  the  divine  origin. 
To  be  sure,  they  seemed  to  come  in  a  very  natural 
way.  Men  wrote  them.  They  wrote  them  with  the 
ordinary  writing-materials  of  the  day.  They  wrote 
them  without  concerted  action,  far  a23art  in  place  and 
time,  and  for  different  ends.     But  so  does  God  work 


THE   BOOK.  7 

through  men  in  all  His  dealings  A\dth  them,  and  that 
these  books  Avere  written  as  other  books  are  written 
does  not  indicate  that  they  were  not  inspired  of  the 
Deity.  A  man  holds  the  plough,  and  runs  the  furrow, 
and  plants  the  seed,  and  proceeds  with  all  the  course 
of  cultivation ;  but  there  must  be  that  which  is  beyond 
the  man,  the  quickening  power  of  the  mother-earth, 
and  of  the  sunshine  and  rain  and  dew,  before  the 
blade  will  appear  and  mature.  And  in  writing  books, 
one  man  will  go  to  work  in  as  commonjjlace  a  manner 
as  another ;  but  the  one  is  a  dull  fool  and  the  other  is 
a  poet,  and  the  two  books,  when  completed,  will  inevi- 
tably declare  their  origin.  With  regard  to  the  writings 
of  the  New  Testament  there  can  be  no  mistake.  Put 
the  Gospels  by  the  side  of  the  Apocryphal  Gospels 
of  the  Birth  of  Mary,  or  the  Infancy ;  compare  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul  with  those  of  Clement,  or  those  of 
St.  Peter  with  that  of  Barnabas,  and  the  superiority 
of  the  canonical  writings  will  readily  appear.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  is  singularly  like 
some  portions  of  the  New  Testament  writings,  and 
this^  as  well  as  other  letters  now  unrecognized  as  a 
part  of  Holy  Scrij^ture,  were  once,  and  in  some  locali- 
ties, included  in  the  list  of  inspired  books.  When 
their  authority  was  doubted,  they  were  still  held  for  a 
time  under  consideration,  so  careful  were  the  early 
Christians  to  be  right  with  respect  to  so  great  a  mat- 
ter. Shall  Ave  not  say,  so  careful  was  the  Spirit  of  God 
to  preserve  the  Church  from  rejecting  the  true,  or  re- 
ceiving uninspired  writings  ?  But  the  real  nature  of 
the  books  themselves  at  last  determined  the  question, 


8  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

SO  far  as  it  lay  within  the  decision  of  man,  and  only- 
such  writings  as  were  undoubtedly  apostolic,  or  pre- 
l^ared  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  the  Apostles, 
were  received  by  the  churches  as  authoritative. 

All  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  were  com- 
pleted and  in  the  possession  of  the  churches,  at  the 
close  of  the  first  century.  The  testimony  of  all  the 
early  Christian  writers  is  to  this  effect ;  perhaps  not  a 
single  passage  in  any  writer  of  the  second,  third,  or 
fourth  century  can  be  found  which  assigns  any  later 
date  to  any  of  these  Scriptures.  Nearly  all  of  them 
claim  to  have  been  written  within  the  period  assigned. 
The  exact  date  cannot  be  given,  though  in  some  in- 
stances it  has  been  determined  with  great  accuracy, 
probably  within  a  few  weeks,  or  even  days,  of  the  time 
of  the  actual  writing ;  but  approximate  dates  for  all 
have  been  fully  ascertained.  All  the  Apostles  had  com- 
pleted their  work  before  100  A.  D.  It  was  probably  in 
the  year  68,  during  the  persecution  under  Nero,  that 
St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  were  killed  at  Rome.  The 
execution  of  St.  James,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  not  the 
James  who  wrote  the  Epistle,  is  spoken  of  in  the  Acts. 
With  the  single  exception  of  St.  John,  there  is  no 
trustworthy  evidence  even  in  tradition  that  any  of  the 
other  Apostles  lived  till  the  end  of  the  century,  and  it 
is  wholly  probable  that  they  were  of  such  an  age  while 
Jesus  was  living  on  earth,  as  to  render  their  subse- 
quent life  not  longer  than  about  a  generation  after  the, 
crucifixion,  even  had  they  died  a  natural  death.  But 
we  know  that  nearly  all  of  them  suffered  martyrdom 
for  their  faith.     St.  John  alone  is  said  to  have  sur- 


THE   BOOK.  9 

vived  to  an  extreme  old  age,  and  to  have  died  peace- 
fully at  last ;  and  the  conjectures  concerning  the  time 
of  his  death  have  ranged  from  A.  D.  89  to  A.  D.  120. 
All  the  probabilities  are,  however,  that  the  beloved  disci- 
ple lived  not  later  than  the  first  decade  of  the  second 
century,  and  even  this  must  be  considered  as  an  ex- 
treme date.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  conclusion 
we  have  stated  must  be  true,  if,  indeed,  the  various 
writings  which  claim  their  authorship  were  really  com- 
posed by  the  Apostles.  Of  this  there  is  no  reasonable 
doubt.  The  only  books  of  the  New  Testament  which 
were  not  written  by  them,  or  by  their  immediate 
dictation,  nevertheless  give  such  evidence  of  having 
had  their  revision  or  approval  as  to  make  them  of 
equal  force  with  their  own  wi'itings.  The  Gospel 
of  St.  Mark,  it  is  generally  believed,  was  prepared 
under  the  direct  care  of  St.  Peter;  the  Gospel 
of  St.  Luke  is  the  work  of  a  close  companion  of  St. 
Paul,  and  the  same  man  wrote  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles. The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  bears  every  evi- 
dence of  a  right  to  a  place  among  the  apostolic  letters. 
Both  the  internal  and  external  evidences  are  over- 
whelming in  favor  of  the  composition  of  all  these  writ- 
ings within  the  first  century,  and  by  the  authors 
to  whom  they  are  ascribed.  It  is  plainly  not  the  place 
tO"  enter  into  the  details  of  these  evidences  in  these 
pages,  but  it  is  to  be  said  simply  that  the  result  of  the 
learned  labors  of  scholars,  among  the  very  best  of  all 
countries  is  largely  for  this  view.  The  reader  may  be 
referred  to  Tischendorfs  "When  were  our  Gospels 
written  ?  "  for  a  singularly  clear  statement  concerning 


10  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

these  four  books,  which  are  the  basis  of  the  writ- 
ings of  the  New  Testament.  The  fourth  Gospel  has 
been  the  object  of  the  greatest  strife  in  this  respect, 
but  one  cannot  read  the  latest  criticism  upon  the  sub- 
ject, as  in  Dr.  Ezra  Abbot's  "The  Authorship  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,"  'without  feeling  that  the  question  is 
settled.  The  external  evidence,  particularly,  seems 
decisive  with  regard  to  all  the  New  Testament  Scrip- 
tures. It  is  clearly  shown  that  the  churches  of  the 
second  century  had  nearly  the  whole  of  the  canon  as 
it  now  stands.  A  list  was  discovered  by  Muratori  in 
A.  D.  1738,  and  called,  after  him,  the  Muratori  Frag- 
ment, which  was  written  about  the  year  170,  and 
which  recognizes  the  Gospels,*  the  Acts,  thirteen 
epistles  of  St.  Paul,  two  of  St.  John,  that  of  St.  Jude, 
and  the  Revelation,  while  it  gives  the  name  also  of 
an  Apocalypse  of  Peter,  with  the  remark,  however, 
that  "  some  of  our  body  will  not  have  the  latter  read 
in  the  church."  t  Again,  the  writings  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  second  century,  and  the  versions  of  that  date, 
also  show  that  there  must  have  been  at  that  time 
an  accepted  book  of  Christian  Scriptures,  used  con- 
stantly by  the  churches  and  individuals  everywhere. 
But  certainly  this  could  not  have  been,  without  the 
lapse  of  considerable  time  after  those  Scriptures  were 
written.  Such  a  general  acceptance  in  the  second  cen- 
tury must   point   back  to  a  very  early  date   for  the 

*  The  beginning  and  end  of  the  document  are  lost,  and  the 
first  reference  is :  —  *'  Tlie  Gospel  according  to  Luke  is  the 
third,"  after  which  the  fourth  Gospel  is  named,  plainly  implying 
that  the  lost  portion  enumerated  Matthew  and  Mark  as  the  first 
two  Gospels.  ♦  t  So  Westcott. 


THE    BOOK.  11 

authorshii).  It  is  like  a  large  river  bursting  forth  from 
the  mouth  of  a  cavern.  The  source  of  the  stream  is 
hidden  from  view,  but  not  for  a  moment  is  it  conceiv- 
able that  the  tiny  sjjrings,  which  are  the  origin  of  the 
flood,  lie  right  at  hand  within  the  mouth  of  the  cave. 
The  very  volume  of  the  waves  demands  that  the  hid- 
den sources  shall  be  sought  far  away ;  the  very  force 
of  the  tide  proves  that  the  starting-jDoint  lies  distant 
and  higher  up  than  the  present  course.  If  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  second  century  had  a  list  of  sacred  books 
so  complete  as  that  indicated  by  the  Muratori  Canon, 
and  confinned  by  a  multitude  of  references  in  other 
writings,  the  conclusion  is  irresistible  that  the  books 
must  have  been  written  long  previous.  Very  impor- 
tant testimony,  even  earlier  than  the  list  found  by 
Muratori,  is  afforded  curiously  through  the  labors  of  a 
heretic  to  establish  his  own  position.  As  early  as 
A.  D.  140,  Marcion  was  a  teacher  at  Rome,  after  exclu- 
sion from  the  Church  at  Sinope,  in  Asia  Minor,  of 
which  his  father  was  bishop.  He  made  a  list  of 
Scriptures  to  suit  his  own  heretical  views,  and  included 
in  it  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  and  a  mutilation  of  the  Gospel 
of  St.  Luke.  But  instantly  the  indignation  of  the 
Church  blazed  forth,  and  through  her  great  writers 
condemned  such  treatment  of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
At  least  a  score  of  documents  were  then  claimed  as  of 
apostolic  authority,  and  the  belief  of  the  Church  thus 
early  stamped  those  books  with  a  canonical  impor- 
tance. And  yet  the  establishment  of  the  canon  in  its 
completeness  could  only  be  effected  after  a  considera- 
ble lapse  of  time.     The  books  were  in  existence  when 


12  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

the  first  century  closed,  but  they  were  scattered,  and 
some  of  them  had  not  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
churches  in  many  localities.  Yet  their  circulation 
would  be  certain,  and  in  the  course  of  time  there  would 
surely  arise  a  general  consent  of  the  churches  in  their 
reception.  Some  of  the  originals  required  that  they 
should  be  sent  from  one  church  to  another.*  Others 
were  formally  addressed  to  the  whole  Christian 
world,t  or  to  large  bodies  of  readers. $  If  the  original 
were  retained  by  the  first  church  receiving  it,  doubt- 
less copies  would  be  made  as  speedily  as  possible,  and 
sent  forth  to  other  places.  This  circulation  would 
give  all  the  churches  a  proprietorshijD  in  the  books,  and 
in  the  very  nature  of  things,  a  certain  defined  list  of 
the  writings  would  be  generally  known  after  a  con- 
siderable time.  It  would  not  be  all  made  up  at  once 
and  by  some  arbitrary  decree  of  a  church  or  a  council. 
It  would  be  a  growth,  but  would  surely  come  to  its 
maturity  at  last.  This  is  exactly  what  we  find  in 
history.  It  is  probable  that  the  earliest  collection  of 
the  sacred  books  was  made  in  Asia  Minor,  §  and  in- 
cluded only  the  Epistles,  to  which  the  Gospels  must 
have  been  very  quickly  added,  as  the  testimony  is 
especially  full  and  clear  that  they  were  all  used  in  the 
early  part  of  the  second  century.  But  some  of  the 
writings  were  kept  waiting  for  a  long  time  before  they 
were  allowed  admission  into  the  list  of  fully  accepted 
books.     The  Peshito,  a  Syriac  translation,  hereafter  to 

*  Col.  iv.  16.  t  Jude  i.  1 ;  2  Peter  i.  1. 

X  James  i.  1 ;  1  Peter  i,  1 ;  Rev.  i.  4. 
§  Davidson,  Biblical  Criticism,  p.  477. 


THE   BOOK.  13 

be  described,  of  very  early  date,  shows  by  its  omis- 
sion of  the  second  and  third  Epistles  of  St.  John,  the 
second  of  St.  Peter,  that  of  St.  Jiide,  and  the  Revela- 
tion, that  these  books  were  still  held  in  doubt  when 
the  translation  was  made.  The  Christians  were  not 
to  be  easily  duped,  and  the  very  delay  in  the  reception 
of  some  of  the  sacred  books  has  had  a  happy  influence 
upon  the  faith  of  all  succeeding  ages  just  on  this 
account.  Yet  with  the  exception  of  the  five  books 
named  above,  to  Avhich  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
should  be  added,  all  the  New  Testament  was  already 
recognized  as  inspired  by  the  churches  in  Asia,  Syria, 
Africa,  and  Italy,  and  the  remaining  books,  before 
the  passage  of  another  century,  found  a  generally 
recognized  place  in  the  canon.  And  all  evidence  goes 
to  show  that  before  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century 
the  canon,  as  Ave  have  it,  was  closed. 

All  this  indicates  that  there  must  have  been  a  mul- 
titude of  copies  of  the  sacred  writings  in  existence  very 
early,  and  they  must  have  been  scattered  everywhere 
by  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century.  If  the  originals 
were  composed  before  the  year  100,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  had  elapsed  in  which  their  copies  had  been' 
scattered  among  the  Christians  all  over  the  world. 
The  way  in  which  these  copies  were  made,  to  be  moVe 
especially  considered  upon  a  future  page,  did  not  pre- 
vent occasional  errors  in  the  text.  No  theory  of  in- 
spiration has  ever  required  all  copies  to  be  inspired. 
Just  as  in  the  case  of  all  other  books  of  those  early 
times,  various  readings  are  found  to  exist  iii  many 
places  in  the  New  Testament,  and  so  it  becomes  neces- 


14  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

sary  to  determine,  if  possible,  which  is  the  correct 
text,  —  that  of  the  original  document  itself.  These  an- 
cient copies  of  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  are 
to  be  treated,  therefore,  exactly  as  the  classical  works 
of  Greece  and  Rome  are  treated,  so  far  as  textual 
criticism  is  concerned.  Every  interpreter  of  the  Bible 
wishes  to  know  what  was  really  written  by  the  author 
whom  he  is  studying.  The  reader  of  an  English  ver- 
sion, if  he  is  not  skilled  in  the  original  languages  so 
that  he  can  go  back  of  the  English  text  to  that  from 
which  it  was  translated,  has  a  right  to  demand  some 
proofs  of  the  true  scholarship,  the  ability  and  honesty, 
of  him  who  made  the  translation.  In  exactly  the  same 
way  the  reader  of  the  Greek  text  pushes  the  inquiry 
still  further  back,  that  he  may  know  whether  the 
Greek  he  is  reading  was  really  what  was  written  by 
the  author  in  the  apostolic  age.  And  if  there  are  two 
or  more  manuscripts,  of  the  Gospel  of  Mark  for  in- 
stance, it  is  his  work  to  take  all  the  evidence  into 
account  by  which  he  can  determine  whether,  if  these 
manuscripts  differ  in  any  resj^ect,  his  text  coincides 
with  the  correct  reading,  or  not.  So  it  is  seen  that, 
however  valuable  the  work  of  an  interpreter  is,  the 
determination  of  the  text  itself  is  of  more  value  still 
and  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  interpreter's  work. 
The  first  duty  of  all  criticism  is,  therefore,  the  consid- 
eration of  the  correctness,  or  incorrectness,  of  the  text 
itself,  and  the  restoration  of  it,  so  far  as  may  be  possible, 
to  the  original  readings  of  the  autograph  manuscript. 

If,  only,  the  autograph  itself  could  be  discovered, 
the  task  would  be  easy.    But  it  is  true  of  every  one  of 


THE   BOOK.  15 

the  New  Testament  writings  that  the  original  doubt- 
less perished  at  an  early  date.  Copies  alone  are  found ; 
it  is  to  these  that  recourse  must  be  had,  and  a  judg- 
ment must  be  formed  by  a  comparison  of  their  texts 
with  each  other.  It  is  fortunate  that  there  are  other 
helps  also,  as,  for  example,  the  various  versions  that 
have  been  made,  for  it  is  evident  that  a  translation  is 
an  index  of  that  from  which  the  translation  was  made. 
If  an  early  version  mdicated  a  reading  different  from 
that  of  the  copies  of  manuscripts  of  about  the  same 
period,  this  version  must  of  course  be  taken  into  ac- 
count ;  it  may  be,  perhaps,  of  even  greater  importance 
than  the  manuscripts  of  the  text  themselves  of  the 
same  period,  because  it  proves  that  they  were  not 
the  originals  —  that  a  text  must  have  existed  earlier 
from  which  the  version  was  made.  Wonderful  skill  is 
required  to  collect  all  the  evidence  possible,  and  then 
determine  between  the  false  and  the  true ;  and  the  work 
of  the  textual  critic  is  therefore  deservedly  reckoned 
as  a  science,  having  its  own  laws,  and  requiring  the 
most  careful  training  upon  the  part  of  every  scholar  who 
undertakes  its  difficult  tasks.  The  principal  sources 
from  which  such  criticism  derives  its  aid  in  deter- 
mining the  changes  that  have  been  made  in  the  text 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  which  make  it  possible  to 
restore  the  authentic  readings,  are  thus  enumerated 
by  one  of  the  greatest  of  these  learned  critics.  Dr. 
Samuel  Davidson,  in  his  Treatise  on  Biblical  Criti- 
cism, frequently  referred  to  in  these  pages,  gives  these 
sources  as  follows :  — 


16  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

1.  Ancient  versions  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

2.  Parallels  or  repeated  passages. 

3.  Quotations. 

4.  MSS.  or  written  copies. 

5.  Critical  conjecture. 

This  order  is  observed  because,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
manuscripts  of  the  text  so  far  as  discovered  at  present 
are  all  of  dates  subsequent  to  sources  of  the  first  three 
kinds,  which  have  been  useful  in  this  department  of 
study.  Not  only  have  the  autographs  of  the  New 
Testament  Scriptures  been  lost,  but  also  all  copies  of 
them  during  the  earliest  years  of  Christianity  have 
thus  far  eluded  the  most  thorough  search.  Indeed 
there  is  a  wide  gap  of  almost  three  centuries  between 
the  original  manuscripts  of  the  Evangelists  and  Apos- 
tles, and  the  earliest  copies  of  their  writings  which 
have  yet  been  discovered.  But  this  long  interval 
is  not  without  its  important,  its  abundant  witness 
to  the  real  text  of  the  originals  themselves.  The  ab- 
sence of  the  autographs  and  of  their  earlier  copies 
may  readily  be  explained  by  many  reasons.  As  we 
shall  soon  see,  it  is  almost  certain  that  the  originals 
and  most  of  the  first  copies  were  written  upon  fragile 
joapyrus,  which  probably  soon  crumbled  away,  or  be- 
came so  tattered  and  worn  as  to  be  practically  useless. 
It  is  historical,  too,  that  multitudes  of  these  first 
Christian  books  were  destroyed  deliberately,  or  of 
necessity,  within  the  first  three  centuries.  In  the 
various  persecutions  many  of  these  precious  volumes 
were  lost.  It  was  well  understood  by  the  heathen 
enemies   of    the    young  and    growing   Church,   how 


THE    BOOK.  17 

much  value  the  Christians  placed  uj^on  their  Scrip- 
tures, as  the  source  of  their  faith  and  the  guide 
to  their  lives.  In  the  last  and  fiercest  persecution  of 
all,  that  under  Diocletian,  from  A.  D.  303  to  312,  it 
was  proclaimed  upon  Easter-day,*  that  all  religious 
assemblies  should  be  dispersed,  all  Christian  churches 
demolished,  every  copy  of  the  Scriptures  be  delivered 
up  and  burnt,  and  the  Christians  themselves,  who 
.should  refuse  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  should  forfeit 
their  lives  and  their  estates.  The  decree  shows  hoAv 
important  it  was  deemed  by  the  foes  of  the  new  relig- 
ion to  destroy  the  writings,  as  well  as  the  lives  and 
the  i3roperty,  of  the  Christians.  By  far  the  larger 
number  refused  to  give  up  the  books,  and  were  pun- 
ished with  more  or  less  severity,  as  the  respective  gov- 
ernors determined.  In  Abitina,  for  instance,  a  town  in 
proconsular  Africa,  forty-nine  Christians,  who  had  as- 
sembled for  the  professed  j^urpose  of  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  who  refused  to  give  up  either  their  books, 
or  their  faith,  were  seized  and  executed,  a  heroic  boy 
among  them,  whose  name,  Hilarianus,  has  been  grate- 
fully remembered  in  history  on  account  of  his  fidelity 
and  almost  romantic  devotion  to  the  truth.  But  all 
were  not  so  brave,  and  many  of  the  weaker  sort  vol- 
untarily gave  up  their  books  under  threats  of  torture. 
There  were  so  many  of  this  class  that  a  special  name 
was  attached  to  them,  and  they  were  called  Traditores^ 
or  "  Givers  up."  There  were  very  few,  even  of  the 
faithful,  who  could  successfully  conceal  the  books,  and 
it  is  doubted  by  some  scholars,!  so  great  was  the  loss 

*  Guericke,  Church  History  (Ancient)  pp.  94  and  95. 
t  Scrivener,  Six  Lectures,  p.  9. 


18  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

of  these  years,  whether  any,  or  at  most  more  than  a 
few  inconsiderable  fragments,  of  the  New  Testament 
are  now  extant,  older  than  the  reign  of  Diocletian. 
But  as  I  said,  other  sources  are  preserved  from  the 
interval  between  the  apostolic  days  and  the  earliest 
known  manuscripts,  and  these  are  of  the  first  classes 
noted  by  Davidson.  The  first  three  centuries  had 
many  Christian  writers,  whose  works  stand  noAV 
upon  the  shelves  of  our  libraries,  and  in  which  are 
multitudinous  quotations,  with  added  comments  and 
expositions,  which  are  of  inestimable  service  in  deter- 
mining the  texts  of  the  sacred  manuscripts,  which 
these  writers  possessed.  If  Irenaeus,  in  the  second 
century,  quoted  a  passage  of  Scrii3ture,  that  j^assage, 
as  it  stands  in  his  works,  is  a  certain  index  of  a  text 
existing  at  that  time,  even  though  no  separate  manu- 
script of  such  an  early  date  is  found.  And  in  the 
same  way  the  existence  of  Syriac,  Coptic,  Latin,  and 
other  versions,  though  themselves  belonging  to  dates 
not  earlier  than  extant  manuscripts,  give  evidence  of 
the  lost  copies  from  which  they  were  translated.  It 
is,  however,  especially  the  fourth  source  in  the  order 
given  by  Davidson  as  quoted  above,  the  manuscripts 
or  written  copies  themselves,  which  are  the  special 
subject  of  the  following  pages,  though  incidentally,  and 
around  these  as  their  centre,  all  of  the  other  sources 
must  be  spoken  of,  and  a  few  other  topics  briefly 
treated,  as  throwing  light  upon  the  main  subject. 

Will  the  reader  be  led  to  question,  if  all  these 
things  are  so,  whether  we  have  really  an  inspired 
Bible  to-day,  and  whether  our  religion  is  not  after  all 


THE   BOOK.  19 

built  upon  a  shaking  foundation,  if  it  rests  simply 
upon  Scriptures,  that  have  become  even  in  the  slight- 
est degree  corrupt?  Such  a  fear  may  indeed  arise, 
but  it  may  be  as  quickly  dismissed.  The  very  study 
of  the  manuscripts,  which  reveals  these  discrepancies, 
reveals  far  more  their  substantial  unity,  and  leaves 
beyond  question  the  fact  that,  in  the  common  origin 
of  them  all,  there  was  the  text^  which  taught  essen- 
tially the  same  truths  which  the  later  copies  teach. 
The  pyramids  give  no  stronger  testimony  to  their 
builders  than  the  manuscripts  in  our  possession  give 
to  the  text  originally  Avritten  by  Apostles  and  their  as- 
sociates. And  all  the  corruptions  of  the  original  text 
in  the  copies  are  really  no  more  than  the  stains  and 
abrasions,  the  mutilations  and  accretions  which  have 
altered  the  pjTamids  from  what  they  were  when  they 
first  cast  their  pointed  shadows  over  the  sands  of  the 
Egyptian  desert.  The  form,  the  body,  the  mass,  the 
pyramid,  is  the  same  to-day  that  it  ever  was.  There 
have  been,  indeed,  many  important  lessons  learned 
from  the  critical  uses  of  the  manuscrij^ts.  Many  pas- 
sages of  doubtful  import  have  been  made  clear  by 
the  alteration  of  a  letter  or  word  according  to  the 
suofojestion  of  one  of  these  ancient  documents.  Some- 
times  a  whole  verse  or  passage  has  been  found  to  be 
spurious,  an  interpolation  of  a  later  date  by  some 
copyist  who  meant  well  indeed,  but  whose  action  was 
a  serious  mistake.  But  with  all  such  corrections  and 
with  every  change  there  has  been  no  substantial  al- 
teration, nothing  that  has  affected  at  all  the  great 
body  of  Christian  truth,  nothing  that  has  imperilled 


20  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

for  a  moment  any  doctrine  of  the  Church.  The  Scrip- 
tures are  too  broad  for  that.  They  do  not  build  their 
teachings  upon  any  single  verse.  Line  upon  line, 
precept  upon  precept,  they  teach  without  uncertainty, 
and  one  part  confirms  another.  And  yet  there  are 
many  delicate  shades  of  meaning,  which  the  devout 
reader  Avill  find  of  great  use  to  his  spiritual  life,  in 
almost  every  passage  of  the  Christian  Scriptures,  and 
if  even  these  can  be  brought  out  by  a  correction  of  the 
text,  it  is  most  desirable.  But  especially  if,  through 
the  craft  or  even  the  well-meant  interference  of  some 
copyist,  a  pernicious  alteration  has  been  made,  —  a 
change  which  teaches  a  really  unscriptural  thing,  or 
which  to  the  slightest  degree  obscures  or  complicates 
the  statement  of  truth  originally  made,  —  it  is  evident 
that  the  greatest  service  to  the  reader  and  to  the 
Church  is  performed,  if  the  error  is  exposed.  But 
such  falsities  are  rare.  Many  passages,  however, 
would  have  wholly  failed  to  yield  the  truth  without 
their  elucidation  by  the  critic  of  the  text. 

Michaelis  classified  the  various  readings  of  extant 
manuscripts  as  follows,  though  of  course  there  are  a 
few  others  of  different  kinds,  which  refuse  to  be 
classed  with  any  and  must  stand  as  unique. 

''The  various  readings  in  our  manuscripts  of  the 
New  Testament,"  writes  this  critic,  "  have  been  occa- 
sioned by  one  of  the  five  following  causes  :  — 

1.  The  omission,  addition,  or  exchange  of  letters, 
syllables,  or  words,  from  the  mere  carelessness  of  the 
transcribers. 

2.  Mistakes  of  the  transcribers  in  regard  to  the  true 
text  of  the  original. 


THE   BOOK.  21 

3.  Errors  or  imperfections  in  the  ancient  manuscript 
from  which  the  transcriber  copied. 

4.  Critical  conjecture,  or  intended  improvements  of 
the  original  text. 

5.  Wilful  corruptions  to  serve  the  purpose  of  a 
party,  whether  orthodox  or  heterodox." 

It  may  readily  be  seen  that  errors  from  the  last 
source  must  be  very  few.  The  very  hatred  engendered 
by  such  party-strife,  and  the  suspicion  that  such  means 
might  be  resorted  to  for  the  support  of  asserted  doc- 
trine, would  be  sufficient  to  insure  the  keenest  watch- 
fulness lest  the  fraud  should  be  consummated.  It  is 
hardly  imaginable  that  errors  of  this  kind  could  have 
remained  long  undetected. 

Dr.  John  Mill  of  Oxford  computed  the  various 
readings  for  the  New  Testament  alone  at  about  thirty 
thousand.  This  was  in  the  year  1707.  Probably  the 
number  that  have  been  noted  up  to  the  present  time 
would  be  more  correctly  stated  at  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand.  The  vast  mass  of  these,  however, 
are  of  almost  no  importance,  as  will  be  more  fully 
indicated  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  It  will  be  sufficient 
here  merely  to  emphasize  the  statement,  that  with  all 
these  errors,  the  evidence  for  their  correction  is  far 
stronger  than  any  upon  which  our  knowledge  of  other 
ancient  books  is  based.  The  manuscripts  of  the  Greek 
Scriptures,  not  merely  those  of  the  New  Testament 
but  also  of  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, are  far  more  numerous,  and  surpass  in  age 
those  of  all  classical  writings  put  together.  Of  the 
writings  of  Homer,  who  lived  perhaps  eight  or  nine 


22  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

hundred  years  before  Christ,  we  know  nothing  except 
through  copies  that  date  from  a  time  very  long  after 
Christ.  No  comjjlete  copy  dates  back  farther  than 
the  thirteenth  century,  though  fragments  have  come 
to  light  that  should  be  assigned  possibly  to  the  sixth 
century.  Herodotus,  the  most  ancient  and  important 
of  classic  historians,  has  no  manuscript  extant  earlier 
than  the  ninth  century ;  and  of  the  fifteen  known  to 
exist,  the  majority  are  later  than  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  Of  Plato's  writings  there  are  fewer 
copies  than  of  Herodotus,  and  none  before  the  ninth 
century.  A  single  Virgil  in  the  Vatican  Library  claims 
to  have  originated  in  the  fourth  century,  but  it  stands 
alone  among  the  classics  in  its  high  antiquity.  But 
of  the  New  Testament  there  are  thousands  of  manu- 
scripts, and  the  earliest  leave  but  a  gajD  of  about  two 
centuries  between  them  and  the  lives  of  the  men  who 
wrote  the  originals.  The  immense  importance  of  these 
Scriptures,  compared  with  the  choicest  of  the  classics, 
would  seem  to  demand  their  fuller  preservation  and  a 
more  accurate  means  of  determining  their  true  text 
than  in  the  case  of  any  other  compositions  whatever  ; 
and  the  gratitude  of  Christendom  is  strongly  called 
forth,  because  this  demand  is  so  fully  met  by  the  facts, 
and  the  testimony  to  the  originals  is  so  complete. 

It  is  thus  that  the  Book  brings  its  lessons  of  God 
and  godly  living  to  the  men  of  our  day.  There  is  no 
doubt  to  undermine  our  faith,  there  is  no  fear  to  cast 
a  cloud  over  the  radiance  of  divine  truth  that  streams 
from  the  inspu-ed  Word. 


BOOKS   IN   ANCIENT   TBIES.  23 


CHAPTER  II. 

BOOKS    IX   AXCIEXT    TIMES. 

If  the  method  in  which  books  were  made,  before  the 
art  of  printing  and  the  improvements  in  the  materials 
used  in  their  manufacture  gave  them  their  present 
form,  be  considered,  the  story  of  the  manuscripts  Avill 
be  the  more  easily  told  and  understood.  It  will  avail 
nothing  to  speak  of  the  tablets  used  by  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  even  at  the  very  time  when  the  Chris- 
tian Scriptures  were  beginning  to  be  written,  nor  of 
other  forms  of  books  more  ancient  still, — like  slabs  of 
stone  or  metal,  —  which  would  be  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance were  the  j^resent  discussion  Avith  reference  to 
the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament.  We  have  only  to 
do  with  the  kind  of  books  that  were  in  general  use  in 
the  lands  of  the  apostolic  writers,  and  the  materials 
which  they  commonly  employed.  And  it  is  sufficient 
to  note  of  all  preceding  writings,  that  the  rudest  forms 
had  long  since  yielded  to  ingenious  improvements,  as 
civilization  had  advanced,  so  that  in  the  times  of  the 
New  Testament  facilities  for  writing  existed,  which 
former  ages  would  have  counted  themselves  rich  to 
possess.  No  longer  were  men  engraving  their  histo- 
ries in  rude  cuneiform  characters  upon  such  tablets  of 
baked  clay  as  were  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  palace 


24  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

of  Koniunjik,  at  Nineveh,  of  about  670  B.  C,  and  as 
they  may  still  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum.  Even 
the  delicate  wood  and  ivory  plates  were  now  for  the 
most  part  disj^laced  among  Greeks  and  Komans. 
When  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  were  made, 
the  river  Nile  had  already  been  yielding  for  centuries 
its  harvests  of  reeds,  out  of  which  a  substance  was 
manufactured  more  nearly  resembling  modern  paper, 
than  anything  that  had  yet  been  seen.  Fine  skins 
of  leather  were  also  sewed  together,  forming  long 
strips,  which  were  rolled  up  upon  wands  after  they 
had  received  the  writing,  and  were  kej^t  in  cases  of 
leather,  or  wood,  or  metal.  This  is  the  origin  of  our 
Avord  volume,  from  the  Latin  word  volvere,  to  roll 
up.  These  strij^s  of  vellum  or  papyrus  were  about 
four  inches  in  breadth,  and  only  a  few  inches  long, 
and  were  generally  fastened  together  laterally,  so 
that  the  whole  made  one  long  strip,  as  wide  as  the 
original  pieces  were  long,  and  as  long  as  the  Avrit- 
ing  might  require.  The  text  upon  these  ancient 
rolls  was  usually  written  in  columns  correspond- 
ing to  the  original  pieces  of  j^apyrus,  or  vellum,  thus 
fastened  together.  Thus  an  open  roll  would  exhibit 
a  few,  short,  parallel  columns;  these  would  be  read 
in  their  order,  and  rolled  up,  as  fast  as  read,  upon 
the  stick  held  in  the  left  hand,  while  new  columns. 
would  appear  from  the  roll  held  in  the  right  hand. 
Undoubtedly,  all  the  writers  of  the  Bible  before  the 
times  of  the  New  Testament  committed  their  works 
to  parchment  prepared  in  this  form,  and  the  sacred 
books  in  the  possession  of  the  Jewish  synagogues,  and 


BOOKS    IN   ANCIENT   TIMES.  25 

from  which  special  lessons,*  both  from  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets,  were  read  each  Sabbath,  were  thus 
made,  and  entrusted  in  each  synagogue  to  the  care  of 
a  special  officer,  called  the  chazzan. 

Sometimes,  instead  of  this  preparation  in  rolls, 
manuscripts  would  be  written  and  the  separate  pages, 
or  leaves,  stitched  together  ujDon  one  side,  thus  making 
a  book  more  in  accordance  with  the  modern  form, 
though  the  lack  of  hydraulic  pressure  for  solidifying 
the  volume  made  such  books  very  cumbersome,  and 
they  were  comparatively  few.  Their  number  largely 
increased,  however,  as  the  use  of  skins  superseded  that 
of  papyrus,  which  was  the  case  in  the  early  Christian 
centuries.  The  vast  consumption  of  this  product  of 
the  Nile  at  last  exhausted  the  harvests  of  that  river, 
and  some  substitute  became  necessary  for  the  delicate 
fabric  so  long  used.  The  preparation  of  skins  was 
made  more  carefully,  and  very  beautiful  products  were 
at  last  given  to  the  market  for  the  manufacture  of 
books.  The  skins  of  young  antelopes  or  of  calves 
were  dressed  with  the  greatest  care,  and  vellum, 
already  so  long  in  use,  by  the  third  century  was 
greatly  improved  and  was  daily  substituted  for  the 
material  that  had  formerly  been  at  once  commoner 
and  cheaper.  And  for  many  centuries  vellum  con- 
tinued to  be  the  principal  material.  It  was  not  until 
the  ninth  century,  when  the  art  formerly  employed  in 
preparing  the  skins  for  vellum  had  greatly  degener- 
ated, that  a  coarse  paper  made  from  cotton  rags 
began  to  be  used ;  and  it  was  only  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
*  Luke  iv.  16,  17. 


26  THE    STOKY   OF   THE   MANUSCEH^TS. 

tury,  not  very  long  before  the  invention  of  printing, 
that  linen  paper  was  made,  elegantly  finished,  and 
almost  like  the  best  vellum  of  the  earlier  times. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  art  of  writing  was 
for  the  most  part  confined  to  comparatively  few  peo- 
ple. Even  those  who  were  skilled  with  the  style  or 
pen  generally  employed  amanuenses,  if  they  under- 
took any  long  composition.  And  when  more  than  one 
coiDy  of  an  author's  works  was  desired,  the  text  was 
all  written  out  again  laboriously  by  hand.  It  was  a 
special  branch  of  business,  to  write  for  authors,  or 
to  copy  their  works.  Paul,  for  example,  did  not  write 
his  owr^  epistles.  In  that  sense,  none  of  the  New 
Testament  Scriptures  are  autographs.  They  were  all 
written  by  amanuenses  at  the  dictation  of  the  authors. 
Paul's  scribe  was  named  Tertius.*  When  he  writes 
to  the  Colossianst  as  well  as  in  other  cases,  Paul 
adds  a  subscription,  which  sometimes  takes  the  form 
of  a  salutation,  vntli  his  own  hand^  thereby  making 
the  whole  letter  his  own ;  and  to  the  Galatians  % 
he  says :  "  Ye  see  "  (not,  "  how  large  a  letter,"  as  King 
James's  version  has  it)  "  with  what  large  letters  I  have 
written  unto  you  with  mine  own  hand,"  thereby  call- 
ing attention  to  his  peculiar  chirography  as  a  special 
mark  of  the  genuineness  of  the  epistle.  These  scribes, 
accustomed  to  write  from  the  most  rapid  dictation, 
were  called  tachygrai3hers,  or  quick  writers.  Then  if 
the  work  was  to  be  copied,  as  was  usually  the  case, 

*  Rom.  xvi.  32.         f  Col.  iv.  18;   1  Cor.  xvi.  21. 

%  Gal.  vi.  11.  See  Ellicott,  Commentary  in  loco.  Ellicott 
thinks  that  the  wliole  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  was  written  by  St. 
Paul's  own  hand., 


BOOKS   IN   ANCIENT   TIMES.  27 

other  scribes,  trained  especially  for  the  work,  and  tak- 
ing a  longer  time  for  its  performance,  re-wrote  the 
whole  text  in  beautifully  formed  letters.  These  scribes 
were  called  calligraphers,  or  fairhand  writers,  and  the 
specimens  of  their  work,  which  are  extant,  are  some- 
times as  beautiful  as  engraving  from  copper-plate. 

In  the  early  centuries  of  our  era,  as  well  as  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  the  word  lihrarius  meant  either  a 
bookseller  or  a  transcriber  of  books,  to  which  was 
sometimes  added  the  meaning  very  nearly  akin  to  our 
modern  word  librarian.  But  the  more  general  usage 
was  its  application  to  one  who  wrote  or  copied  manu- 
scripts. In  the  Roman  Empire  these  transcribers  Avere 
often  slaves,  though  there  were  many,  especially  in  the 
provinces,  who  labored  for  pay  which  was  generally 
wholly  incommensurate  with  the  labor  performed.  In 
Christian  times  the  copies  of  all  ecclesiastical  works 
were  usually  made  by  members  of  the  order  for  which 
the  transcription  was  made ;  and  because  the  monas- 
teries became  the  principal  repositories  of  learning  a 
multitude  of  works  not  deemed  sacred,  but  preserved 
only  for  their  literary  value,  were  thus  stored  away  in 
the  libraries.  It  may  even  be  asserted,  that  had  it  not 
been  for  Christianity,  and  the  care  Avith  which  it  fos- 
tered learning  in  the  early  times,  our  knowledge  of  the 
heathen  classics  would  be  far  less  than  it  is  at  present. 
It  has  been  already  remarked  that  the  copies  of  such 
works  are  few,  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  they 
would  be  far  fewer  still,  if  the  librarii  of  the  monas- 
teries had  not  devoted  much  time  and  labor  to  their 
preservation. 


28  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

Origen  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  first  Chris- 
tians who  gave  regular  employment  to  transcribers. 
Alexander  of  Jerusalem,  the  bishop  of  the  church,  and 
Origen's  friend,  formed  one  of  the  earliest  ecclesiasti- 
cal libraries,  and  this  collection  gave  aid  to  Eusebius 
in  his  works.  The  latter,  it  is  said,  received  a  com- 
mission from  the  Emperor  Constantine  to  j^repare  fifty 
cojiies  of  the  entire  Greek  Scriptures,*  upon  the  finest 
material,  and  by  the  best  workmen,  and  the  volumes, 
when  completed,  were  transported  to  Constantinople 
from  Csesarea  in  two  of  the  government  wagons. 
These  manuscripts  were  inspected  by  the  emperor 
himself,  and  then  committed  to  the  charge  of  the  chief 
churches  for  use  and  preservation.  It  may  be,  as  has 
been  suggested,  that  the  best  manuscripts  of  the  Scrii> 
tures  in  our  possession  had  their  origin  in  these  copies 
made  by  the  imperial  command. 

Christian  scribes  were  of  all  offices  and  rank.  It 
was  not  thought  unworthy  employment  for  even  the 
highest  dignitaries  of  the  church  to  devote  themselves 
to  making  elegant  copies  of  the  sacred  books.  And  in 
the  lower  ranks  in  the  monasteries,  if  a  brother  were 
found  to  have  special  abilities  in  such  lines  of  work,  he 
was  excused  the  coarser  and  more  violent  kinds  of 
labor  that  might  naturally  have  fallen  to  his  lot,  and 
his  hand  was  kept  delicate  and  his  powers  fresh  for 
the  sacred  employment  of  the  scriptorium.  It  was 
not  for  him  to  hew  wood  or  draw  water;  his  care 
must  be  for  the  style  and  the  brush,   the  ruler  and 

*  Not  merely  of  the  Gospels,  a§  Tregelles  asserted.  Comp. 
Bleek,  Einleitung,  §  268,  2, 


BOOKS    IN    ANCIENT   TIMES.  29 

compass,  the  inkstand  and  vial,  the  ^^ounce  and  the 
mixing  tablet,  for  thus  only  could  the  work  be  wor- 
thily done. 

Alexandria  in  Egypt,  and  some  other  African  locali- 
ties, have  given  the  most  valuable  manuscripts  of  the 
Bible  to  Christendom.  But  many  other  places,  also, 
were  fruitful  in  the  production  of  books  both  sacred 
and  profane.  Those  executed  at  Constantinople,  often 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  were 
famous  for  the  excellence  of  their  text  and  the  splen- 
dor of  their  illuminations  ;  while  many  valuable  works 
are  extant  from  Asia  Minor,  from  the  islands  of  the 
^gean  Sea,  and  from  Cyprus.  It  will  be  noted 
by  the  reader  that  Mount  Athos  is  frequently  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  the  manuscripts  described 
in  these  pages.  There  was,  indeed,  no  place  more 
famous  than  this  mountainous  promontory  for  the 
production  of  ancient  books.  Upon  the  rocky  heights 
of  this  headland  there  were  multitudes  of  monas- 
teries, so  that  the  mountain  seemed  almost  covered 
with  them  ;  and  they  were  deemed  secure  from  all 
violence  alike  on  account  of  their  natural  position  and 
because  the  sanctity  of  their  recluses  invested  the 
place  with  special  awe.  Another  celebrated  group  of 
monasteries  was  in  Calabria,  the  most  southern  prov- 
ince of  Italy,  where  nearly  fifty  religious  establish- 
ments supplied  the  churches  and  libraries  of  Rome 
and  Naples,  Florence  and  Venice  and  Milan.  And  it 
is  from  a  cathedral  town  of  this  region  that  in  these 
late  years  the  Codex  Rossanensis  has  been  brought 
to  light,  as  described   in  a  future  chapter.     Besides 


30  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

these  larger  groups  of  monasteries  there  were  a  multi- 
tude of  isolated  retreats,  whose  inhabitants  found  con- 
genial employment  for  the  listless  hours  in  thus  tran- 
scribing the  books  around  which  the  veneration  of 
ages  had  already  gathered. 

The  great  value  attached  to  the  completed  volumes 
may  be  readily  imagined.  The  rules  of  monasteries 
frequently  record  the  care  with  which  the  treasures 
of  the  library  were  guarded.  Usually  the  ordinary 
monk  was  not  allowed  to  have  books  from  the  library 
for  his  private  use,  except  at  certain  seasons,  as  during 
Lent.  It  was  sometimes  j^rescribed  that  every  monk 
should  be  provided  with  a  handkerchief  in  which  the 
volume  was  to  be  wrapped  when  not  in  use.  Words 
like  those  that  have  kept  the  dust  of  Shakespeare 
untouched  in  the  church  at  Stratford-on-Avon  were 
sometimes  written  upon  a  book  to  save  it  from  thieves, 
or  even  from  careless  misappropriation  by  some  for- 
getful borrower.  A  curious  instance  occurs  in  the 
Missal  of  St.  Maur  des  Fosses,*  in  which  the  words 
were  written :  "  This  book  belongs  to  St.  Mary  and 
St.  Peter,  of  the  monastery  of  the  Trenches.  He  who 
shall  have  stolen  or  sold  it,  or  in  any  manner  with- 
drawn it  from  this  place ;  or  he  who  shall  have  been 
its  buyer,  may  he  be  forever  in  the  company  of  Judas, 
Pilate,  and  Caiaphas.  Amen,  amen.  Fiat,  fiat.  Brother 
Robert  Gualensis,  being  yet  young  and  a  Levite,  hath 
devoutly  written  it  for  his  soul's  health,  in  the  time 
of  Louis,  king  of  the  French,  and  of  Ascelin,  abbot  of 
this  place.  Richard,  prior  and  monk,  caused  this  book 
*  Smith's  Diet,  of  Christian  Antiquities,  II.  1013,  b. 


BOOKS    IN   ANCIENT   TIMES.  31 

to  be  copied,  in  order  to  deserve  the  heavenly  and 
blessed  country.  Thou,  O  priest,  who  ministerest  be- 
fore the  Lord,  be  mindful  of  him.  Pater  noster." 
Another  interesting  example  is  in  a  copy  of  the  Gos- 
pels of  the  thirteenth  century:  "This  sacred  gospel 
has  been  copied  by  the  hand  of  George,  priest  of 
Rhodes,  by  the  exertions  and  care  of  Athanasius, 
cloistered  monk,  and  by  the  labour  of  Christonymus 
Chartinos,  for  their  souls'  health.  If  any  man  dare 
carry  it  off,  either  secretly  or  publicly,  let  him  incur 
the  malediction  of  the  twelve  apostles  and  let  him  also 
receive  the  heavier  curse  of  all  monks.  Amen.  The 
first  day  of  the  month  of  September,  year  6743,  of 
Jesus  Christ  1215."  Another  instance  that  may  be 
given  is  that  of  the  celebrated  Curetonian  Gospels  in 
Syriac,  which  contain  upon  the  first  leaf  a  record  of 
the  ownership  of  the  volume,  with  a  prayer,  instead 
of  the  malediction  of  the  preceding  examples.  The 
note  is  as  follows :  — "  This  book  belonged  to  the 
monk  Habibai,  who  presented  it  to  the  holy  convent 
of  the  Church  of  Deipara,  belonging  to  the  Syrians  in 
the  Desert  of  Scete.  May  God,  abounding  in  mercies 
and  compassion,  for  the  sake  of  whose  glorious  name 
he  set  apart  and  gave  this  spiritual  treasure,  forgive 
his  sins  and  pardon  his  deficiencies,  and  number  him 
among  His  own  elect  in  the  day  of  the  resurrection 
of  His  friends,  through  the  prayers  of  all  the  circle  of 
the  saints  !  Amen,  Amen.  —  Son  of  the  living  God, 
at  the  hour  of  Thy  judgment  spare  the  sinner  who 
wrote  this ! "  Very  often  the  colophon  of  a  manu- 
script  is  very  touching.      Sometimes   it    records  a 


32  THE   STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

personal  j^eculiarity,  as  in  a  case  mentioned  by  Scriv- 
ener in  which  "  the  one-eyed  Cyprian "  is  named. 
The  same  scholar  also ,  refers  to  the  following  distich, 
extracted  from  a  manuscript  in  the  valuable  collection 
of  the  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts  (II.  10) : 

■f]  de  ^(^Xog  laTUTar  .  .  .  (^ixQ^  TEQ/uaiMV. 

"The  hand  that  wrote  doth  moulder  in  the  tomb; 
The  Book  abideth  till  the  day  of  doom." 

In  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  it  was  impossible  to 
make  the  copies  of  original  works  exactly  like  the 
autographs.  However  skilled  the  calligraphers  might 
be,  and  however  great  may  have  been  the  advantages 
of  seclusion  and  of  reverence  for  their  work,  they 
would  inevitably  fail  to  reproduce  the  text  with  any- 
thing like  the  accuracy  which  our  modern  methods 
secure.  By  the  perfected  processes  of  book-making  in 
our  own  time  every  volume  of  the  same  edition  is  a 
facsimile  of  every  other.  Fi'om  the  stereotyped  j^late 
a  thousand  pages  are  struck  off  with  the  greatest 
rapidity,  and  not  one  letter  is  lost  from  any  page  of 
the  thousand.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  slow,  weari- 
some process  of  copying  by  hand  should  be  less  accu- 
rate than  this  mechanical  method.  The  scrupulous 
conscience  of  the  most  devout  copyist  could  not  pre- 
vent dimness  from  stealing  over  the  eye,  nor  keep 
away  the  tremor  from  a  tired  hand.  Interruptions 
would  disturb  even  the  most  secret  scriptorium,  and 
the  attention  withdrawn  suddenly  from  the  work 
would  return  to  it  with  less  power  to  fix  itself  upon 


BOOKS    IN   ANCIENT   TIMES.  33 

the  comi^letion  of  the  task.  Thus  a  word  might  be 
begun  correctly  and  finished  incorrectly.  A  line  or 
part  of  a  line  might  be  omitted.  And  if  a  sudden  ill- 
ness, or  some  equally  untoward  event,  occasioned  a 
delay,  doubtless  in  many  cases  the  writing  was  never 
resumed,  and  the  manuscript  remained  forever  incom- 
plete. It  was  not  infrequent  in  the  Middle  Ages  that 
the  piety  and  the  skill  of  these  copyists,  who  were 
generally  monks,  Avere  equally  famous ;  and  if  one  of 
them  died  in  the  midst  of  his  task,  the  awe-stricken 
brotherhood  deemed  his  work  too  sacred  to  be  finished 
by  another's  hand.  A  thousand  casualties,  indeed,  in 
addition  to  all  the  imperfections  that  naturally  attend 
such  labors  of  eye  and  hand,  occasioned  what  we  now 
find  in  ancient  manuscripts  of  every  kind.  Here  and 
there  are  false  readings ;  here  and  there  are  omissions 
of  words  and  even  of  lines.  In  a  multitude  of  cases 
the  work  is  only  a  fragment  of  what  was  once  written, 
worn  away  and  tattered  by  the  usage  to  which  it  has 
been  subjected  through  many  years.  And  sometimes 
the  text  was  designedly  destroyed.  Yellum  became 
so  costly  that  authors  obtained  it  only  with  the  great- 
est difficulty,  and  a  method  was  devised  by  which 
skins  that  had  been  already  used  could  be  cleansed 
and  used  again.  The  vegetable  ink  of  those  early 
times  could  be  nearly  obliterated,  and  many  ancient 
manuscrijits  were  thus  made  ready  to  receive  a  new 
text,  written  in  the  place  of  the  old.  Books  thus 
made  were  called  palimpsests^  from  Greek  words 
signifying  rubbed  aicay  agarn.  But  usually,  as  time 
went  on,  the  older  writing,  obliterated  only  by  imper- 


34  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

feet  methods,  grew  clear  again,  and  the  vellum  bore 
two  texts,  the  one  written  over  the  other,  and  both 
deciphered  with  the  greatest  difficulty.  Sometimes 
the  skin  was  prepared  twice  in  this  manner,  and  as 
the  lapse  of  years,  or  the  use  of  artificial  means,  re- 
stored the  originals,  a  triple  text  appeared,  demanding 
the  most  erudite  and  patient  scholarship  to  decipher  it 
correctly. 

The  most  interesting  discovery  of  ancient  manu- 
scripts, apart  from  those  of  the  sacred  books  of  Chris- 
tianity, is  that  which  was  made  at  Herculaneum,  the 
city  of  Campania  in  Italy  which  was  buried  in  the 
same  great  eruption  of  Vesuvius  which  destroyed 
Pompeii,  in  4he  year  79.  The  earliest  explorations 
in  1684  and  1720  were  followed  by  the  more  energetic 
endeavors  of  excavators,  who  worked  under  a  royal 
commission,  and  the  number  of  works  of  art  brought 
to  light  was  largely  increased.  It  was  at  this  period, 
in  the  decade  from  1750  to  1760,  that  a  villa  was  un- 
covered in  which  was  found  a  library  of  about  two 
thousand  volumes.  The  rolls  were  badly  damaged, 
and  bore  traces  of  having  been  subjected  to  intense 
heat.  They  were  finally  successfully  treated  by  An- 
tonio Piaggi  of  the  Vatican  Library,  and  their  con- 
tents made  legible.  It  was  found  that  none  of  the 
works  were  of  any  great  importance,  but  the  form  and 
fashion  of  the  books  gave  to  them  a  special  value,  as 
showing  the  kind  of  volumes  that  existed  in  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  when  these  had  been 
buried  under  the  lava  and  ashes  of  Vesuvius.  They 
are  the  only  undoubted  specimens  of  books  contem- 


BOOKS    IN   ANCIENT   TIMES.  35 

poraneoiis  with  the  writings  of  the  Aj^ostles.  They 
are  written  in  uncials  which  captivate  the  eye  by 
their  minuteness  and  elegance.  There  are  no  accents 
or  breathings,  the  jjunctuation  is  very  rare,  and  the 
spaces  between  sentences  iew.  In  a  word,  they  give 
the  best  idea  of  the  probable  'aspect  of  the  apostolic 
writings ;  and  the  earliest  manuscripts  of  the  New 
Testament  extant  are  very  similar  to  these  unques- 
tioned S23ecimens  of  the  literature  of  the  first  century. 
The  invention  of  printing  in  1452  may  be  consid- 
ered as  the  close  of  the  period  of  ancient  book-making. 
The  first  production  of  the  press  of  considerable  im- 
portance was  the  elegant  Latin  Bible  of  Gutenberg, 
issued  in  1456.*  It  was  in  three  volumes,  folio,  with 
two  columns  of  thirty-six  lines  to  a  page.  The  text 
was  an  imitation  of  the  text  of  manuscripts ;  it  was 
printed  on  vellum  and  illuminated  by  hand.  The  sub- 
sequent multiplication  of  copies  by  Gutenberg's  former 
associates,  Faust  and  Schoeffer,  their  exact  uniformity 
and  low  price,  excited  the  greatest  wonder.  It  could 
not  be  credited  that  such  work  could  be  done  without 
the  aid  of  power  beyond  that  which  was  human,  and  the 
printers  barely  escaped  from  the  punishment  usually 
inflicted  in  those  days  upon  men  who  were  in  league 
with  the  devil.  They  saved  their  lives  only  by  reveal- 
ing the  methods  by  which  the  pages  were  reproduced, 
and  the  knowledge  of  the  invention  soon  spread  over 

*  A  copy  of  this  first  printed  book  has  just  been  sold  in  New- 
York  for  $8,000,  and  the  last  copy  which  was  sold  in  England 
was  purchased  by  the  Earl  of  Ashburnham  for  £3,400,  said  to 
be  the  highest  price  ever  paid  for  a  book. 


36  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

Euroj^e.  It  was  the  end  of  the  old  fashions,  the  be- 
ginning of  the  modern  period ;  and  though  for  a  brief 
time  manuscripts  were  still  written  as  of  old,  the  prac- 
tice soon  died  out  under  the  rajoidly  increasing  facili- 
ties afforded  by  the  press. 


MANUSCRIPTS    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  37 


CHAPTER  III. 

MANUSCRIPTS    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES. 

It  is  almost  certain  that  the  Avriters  of  the  originals 
of  the  New  Testament  employed  the  jDapyrus  paper 
as  the  material  upon  which  they  wrote.  The  vellum 
of  their  day  was  far  more  costly  than  the  papyrus,  and 
the  latter  was  in  more  general  use  for  all  short  records, 
letters,  or  any  \\Titings  that  were  not  deemed  specially 
worthy  of  preservation.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that, 
at  least  in  many  instances,  the  apostles  hardly  realized 
what  they  were  doing  when  they  were  sending  their 
letters  to  the  churches.  Were  they  aware  that  they 
were  writing  not  merely  for  the  Christians  of  their 
own  times,  but  for  the  Church  in  all  ages  and  in  all 
the  lands  of  the  earth  ?  It  is  hardly  credible.  They 
could  have  had  no  conception  of  how  the  very  orig- 
inal manuscript  would  be  cherished  at  the  end  of  a 
few  hundred  years,  if  it  should  then  be  in  existence ; 
otherwise,  they  would  doubtless  have  used  the  more 
enduring  materials.  The  papyi'us  leaves  were  frail, 
and  would  not  suffer  much  handling.  It  may  be  a 
matter  for  wonder  that  the  churches  did  not  at  once 
provide  copies  upon  vellum,  which  could  the  more 
easily  be  preserved.  Doubtless  they  did  cause  such 
copies  to  be  made,  though  they  may  have  waited  until 
after  the  death  of  the  authors,  or  until  the  signs  of  the 


38  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

destruction  of  the  23apyriis  became  too  threatening  to 
be  neglected.  But  as  time  went  on,  as  the  apostles 
died,  as  their  works  became  worn  and  mutilated, 
coi^ies  were  multiplied  until  it  became  imj^ossible  that 
any  chance  or  change  could  ever  deprive  the  world  of 
the  jDriceless  treasure  given  to  it  in  the  Kew  Testa- 
ment Scriptures. 

The  number  of  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament, 
or  of  parts  of  it,  thus  far  discovered  is  large.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  there  must  be  somewhat  more 
than  two  thousand  documents  of  this  kind  scattered 
among  the  great  libraries  of  Christendom.  Those  of 
the  earlier  dates  are  naturally  the  most  rare.  Only 
two  can  be  assigned  with  certainty  to  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, though  a  few  important  manuscript  versions 
of  the  same  date  are  extant.  Several  date  from  the 
next  two  centuries,  and  the  number  increases  steadily 
down  to  the  tenth  century,  after  Avhich  there  are  a 
multitude  already  discovered.  How  many  more  re- 
main upon  the  shelves  of  monasteries  whose  dust  has 
not  been  disturbed  for  decades,  or  even  for  centuries, 
no  one  can  say,  but  it  may  be  that  from  these  hidden 
treasures  shall  yet  be  brought  forth  ancient  copies 
which  shall  be  of  immense  value  in  determining  the 
true  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  It  was  not  until  1844 
and  1859  that  the  two  parts  of  the  famous  Sinaitio 
manuscript  of  the  fourth  century  were  discovered, 
and  only  so  late  as  1879  the  world  was  startled  by  the 
report  that  a  new  document  containing  almost  the 
whole  text  of  the  Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Mark  had  been  found,  an  aid  to  criticism  then  hoped 


MANUSCRIPTS   OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  39 

to  be  equal  to  the  best  manuscripts  previously  in  our 
hands.  The  story  of  these  discoveries  will  be  given 
in  subsequent  chapters  ;  but  it  is  evident,  from  the 
fact  that  they  have  come  to  light  only  in  these  late 
years,  that  there  may  yet  be  valuable  treasures  await- 
ing the  search  of  future  scholars. 

The  documents  thus  far  found  are  divided  into 
classes,  and  distinguished  by  certain  marks,  whereby 
they  are  known  to  all  scholars.  Two  great  divisions 
have  been  made  according  to  the  form  of  the  charac- 
ters employed.  In  the  earlier  manuscripts  all  the  let- 
ters are  of  the  same  size,  ca^^itals,  and  written  for  the 
most  i)art  without  breaks  or  stops ;  none  of  the  letters 
trespass  upon  the  margins  of  the  page,  and  the  uni- 
formity of  the  lines  is  not  broken  even  for  the  sake  of 
preventing  the  division  of  a  word.  If  a  corresponding 
example  be  given  in  English  the  appearance  of  such  a 
manuscript  may  be  the  more  easily  conceived.  Take, 
for  example,  two  verses  of  the  last  chapter  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  St.  Mark  (xvi.  4,  5).  As  these  verses  appear  in 
the  Vatican  and  Sinaitic  manuscripts,  before  any  addi- 
tions were  made  to  the  text,  they  are  equivalent  to  the 
following  English,  though  the  order  of  the  words  in 
the  originals  is  different,  according  to  the  Greek  forms 
of  the  sentence. 

ANDWHENTHEYLOOKEDTHEYS 
AWTHATTHE  STONE  WASROLLE 
DAWAYFORITWASVERY  GREAT 
AN  D  E  N  T  E  RINGINTOTHESEPU 
LCHRETHEYSAWAYOUNGMANS 
ITTIN  G  O  N  T  H  E  RIGH  T  SIDECL 
OTHEDINALONG  WHITE  GARME 
NT  AND  THEYWERE  AFERIGHTE 
D 


40  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

The  term  uncial  Avas  given  to  manuscripts  written 
in  this  manner,  from  the  Latin  word  tincui^  an  inch, 
the  letters  sometimes  being  nearly  an  inch  long.  This 
method  of  writing  was  employed  in  the  times  of  the 
Saviour  and  His  apostles,  and  was  changed  only  very 
gradually.  After  a  time  a  letter  larger  than  the  others 
would  occasionally  mark  the  beginning  of  a  sentence. 
Then  decorations  were  added  to  this  initial  letter,  and 
its  size  was  so  increased  as  to  occupy  a  part  of  the 
margin.  Spaces  between  the  words  began  to  appear, 
and  the  whole  text  was  punctuated  with  more  or  less 
accuracy.  Finally,  every  letter  was  slightly  inclined, 
as  the  natural  tendency  in  modern  chirography  and  in 
all  rapid  writing  is  to  slant  the  characters.  And  so, 
at  last,  about  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century,  the 
letters  emj^loyed  were  smaller  and  often  connected  to- 
gether, and  a  running  hand  became  the  ordinary 
method  of  writing.  These  manuscripts  were  there- 
fore called  cursive^  and  on  account  of  their  later  date 
and  more  rapid  production  are  of  less  value  than  the 
uncials.  Many  of  them  are  volumes  of  the  greatest 
elegance.  The  vellum  most  delicately  finished,  and 
often  dyed  a  rich  color,  and  the  text  beautifully  writ- 
ten sometimes  in  silver,  or  colored  inks,  and  adorned 
with  brilliant  illuminations,  testify  to  the  immense 
labor  and  pious  care  of  the  monks,  who  often  gave 
their  lives  to  the  work.  The  cursives  are  very  nu- 
merous, and  sixteen  hundred  of  them  appear  in  cata- 
logues, though  not  more  than  a  hundred  of  these  have 
been  collated  and  made  the  objects  of  critical  study. 
The  uncials,  as  the  older  and  more  valuable,  have,  of 
course,  occupied  the  greater  attention  of  scholars^ 


MANUSCRIPTS    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  41 

There  are  many  manuscripts,  some  of  them  of  high 
importance,  which  have  their  Scriptures  so  divided  as 
to  have  received  a  special  name,  according  to  the  pur- 
poses for  which  they  were  used.  These  are  the  Lec- 
tionaries,  themselves  divided  and  named  according  to 
the  Scriptures  they  contain.  They  were  Service- 
books,  with  portions  appointed  for  reading  in  order 
for  each  day,  without  reference  to  their  original  places 
in  the  New  Testament.  Each  date  had  a  passage  from 
the  Gospels  and  one  from  the  Epistles  assigned  to  it, 
and  these  lessons  were  generally  bound  in  separate 
volumes,  those  from  the  Gospels  together,  and  those 
from  the  other  parts  by  themselves.  This  custom 
gave  rise  to  two  names :  the  Evangelistaria,  for  the 
volumes  containing  the  lessons  from  the  Gospels ;  and 
the  Praxapostolos,  a  compound  word  from  the  Greek 
words  for  acts  and  apostle^  for  the  book  containing  the 
lessons  from  the  Acts  and  Epistles.  The  Evangelis- 
taria outnumber  the  Praxapostoloi  more  than  three  to 
one.  It  will  be  very  readily  seen,  that,  though  these  Lec- 
tionaries  do  not  profess  to  give  a  connected  text,  they 
are  of  great  value  in  determining  the  reading  of  what- 
ever Scriptures  they  were  copied  from,  so  far  as  the 
selections  preserved  in  them  are  concerned.  And  it 
must  be,  that  no  inconsiderable  jjortion  of  the  New 
Testament  would  be  found  in  a  Service-book  con- 
taining lessons  not  only  for  Feast-days  marked  by 
special  services,  but  for  every  day  in  the  year. 

The  inconveniences  of  a  mode  of  writing  which  left 
no  spaces  between  the  words  and  sentences,  and 
which  had  no  punctuation  or  other  aids  to  the  eye 


42  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

and  tongue  in  reading,  were  early  felt,  and  led  to 
attempts  to  remedy  the  evil.  Such  efforts  have  been 
briefly  sketched  already,  in  speaking  of  the  gradual 
transition  from  the  uncial  to  the  cursive  methods  of 
writing.  But  it  should  be  marked  that  some  faint 
traces,  at  least,  of  attempts  to  punctuate  are  to  be 
found  in  almost  all  the  manuscripts  in  our  possession, 
while  very  many  exhibit  definite  and  well-formed  sys- 
tems of  divisions,  by  which  changes  of  topic  and  the 
necessary  separation  of  sentences  and  words  in  reading 
are  indicated.  Even  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century  some  attempt  had  been  made  to  divide 
the  text  into  heads  or  chapters,  for  Tertullian,  who 
died  previous  to  the  year  240,  speaks  of  it.  The 
divisions  that  appear  in  some  manuscripts,  called  the 
Ammonian-Eusebian  sections,  mark  another  attempt 
of  the  kind.  They  were  definite  divisions  of  the 
Gospels  into  chapters,  and  were  smaller  than  those  of 
the  present  time.  They  received  their  name  because 
they  were  originally  adojDted  by  Ammonius  of  Alex- 
andria, who  made  a  harmony  of  the  Gospels,  and 
divided  the  text  thus ;  a  plan  subsequently  adapted  to 
a  similar  work  by  Eusebius.  They  are  usually  num- 
bered in  the  margins.  Another  division  of  the  text, 
later  than  these  sections,  were  the  r/rAo/,  or  titles, 
larger  portions  than  the  Ammonian  sections,  and  so 
called  because  the  titles,  or  subjects,  were  written  in 
the  upper  or  lower  margins.  A  very  noteworthy 
attempt  to  write  the  text  in  such  a  manner  as  to  as- 
sist the  eye  and  voice  of  the  reader,  was  made  by 
Euthalius  of  Alexandria  in  the  year  462.     This  di- 


MANUSCRIPTS    OF   THE    SCKIPTUEES.  43 

vision  was  especially  useful  in  the  public  reading  of 
the  Scriptures.  Euthalius  first  caused  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul,  and  a  little  later  the  Acts  and  General 
Epistles  to  be  written  in  lines,  or  stichoi  (crrt'/ot)  as 
they  were  called,  containing  the  words  that  were  to 
be  read  without  interruption.  The  same  method  was 
also  applied  to  the  Gospels,  but  probably  not  by 
Euthalius  himself.  Such  a  way  of  writing  was  called 
stichometry^  and  several  extant  manuscripts  are  in 
this  form,  as  the  celebrated  codices  Cantabrigiensis 
and  Laudianus.  The  system  was  too  cumbersome  to 
be  universally  adopted ;  very  fcAv  words  could  be 
contained  in  a  single  line,  and  sometimes  only  one 
word,  in  order  to  make  the  reading  clear.  Some 
manuscripts  exist,  for  example  Laudianus,  named 
above,  Avhicli  rarely  have  more  than  a  single  word 
in  a  line.  A  great  loss  of  space  inevitably  attends 
such  writing,  and  it  could  never  be  popular.  Sim- 
pler methods  of  punctuation  by  dots,  with  spacing 
of  words  and  sentences,  gained  constantly  in  favor, 
and  after  the  tenth  century  became  very  common.  It 
is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  no  uniformity  in 
the  laws  of  punctuation  was  acquired  until  after  the 
invention  of  printing  in  the  fifteenth  century,  which 
gave  a  multitude  of  facsimile  copies  of  the  Bible  to 
the  world. 

Entire  copies  of  the  New  Testament  were  often 
made,  by  bringing  together  manuscripts  of  the  various 
books,  which  were  written  at  different  times  and  by 
various  hands.  The  fact  that  a  copy  is  entire  is  not 
necessarily,  therefore,  a  proof  that  the  text  of  all  its 


44  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

parts  is  of  equal  age  and  value.  But  these  charac- 
teristics betray  themselves  almost  inevitably  to  the 
scholar,  and  the  origin  of  different  parts  of  the  same 
manuscript  can  be  assigned  with  great  accuracy. 

The  order  of  the  books  is  generally  the  same,  al- 
though it  differs  somewhat  from  their  position  in  the 
volume  to  which  we  are  accustomed.  The  Gospels 
stand  first,  in  the  order  in  which  we  have  them,  then 
the  Acts,  then  the  General  EjDistles,  then  the  Epistles 
of  Paul,  and  the  Revelation.  Occasionally  the  Epis- 
tles of  Paul  are  placed  next  to  the  Gospels,  the  Acts 
follows,  then  the  General  Epistles  and  the  Revelation. 
Other  slight  variations  sometimes  appear. 

All  the  extant  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament 
are  in  the  form  of  books;*  the  earlier  rolls  have 
transmitted  no  specimen  from  their  number  to  us. 
These  books  are  in  several  forms,  folio,  quarto,  and 
duodecimo.  If  a  manuscript  contains  the  entire  Bible, 
or  a  large  part  of  it,  it  may  occupy  more  than  one 
volume,  the  number  depending  not  merely  upon  tlie 
amount  of  text  j^reserved,  but  also  upon  the  size  of 
the  characters  and  the  nature  of  the  material  em- 
ployed. It  is  evident  that  a  manuscript  book  must  be 
much  larger  than  a  printed  one  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, and  some  of  the  fragments  of  the  Scrip- 
tures preserved  are  of  greater  size  than  the  large 
quarto  Bibles  of  the  present  day. 

Almost  all  the  great  libraries  and  museums  of  the 
Old  World  possess  manuscripts  of  the  Scriptures  of 
greater  or  less  value.     The  most  important  documents 
Compare  Bleek's  Einleitung,  §  268,  3. 


MANUSCRIPTS    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  45 

are  deposited  as  follows.*  England  has  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty,  more  than  half  of  which  are  at 
Oxford,  seventy-five  in  the  British  Museum  in  Lon- 
don, twenty-four  in  Lambeth  Palace,  nineteen  in  the 
libraries  at  Cambridge,  seventeen  in  the  possession  of 
the  Hon.  Robert  Curzon  in  Sussex,  and  the  rest  are 
scattered.  Scotland  has  seven,  and  Ireland  three. 
Italy  contains  three  hundred  and  twenty.  More  than 
half  of  these  are  in  Rome,  and  more  than  one  hundred 
in  the  Vatican  Library.  About  fifty  are  in  Florence, 
twenty  in  Turin,  nine  in  Naples,  fifty  in  Venice,  six  in 
Modena,  two  in  Messina,  and  a  few  are  scattered.  Two 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  are  in  the  Imperial  Library 
in  Paris,  and  there  are  ten  besides  in  France.  In 
Germany  and  Austria  there  are  about  ninety.  Vienna 
has  twenty-eight,  Munich  twenty-seven,  Hamburg  six, 
Pesth  two,  Treves  two,  and  others  are  scattered. 
Russia  has  over  seventy,  of  which  the  most  imj^ortant 
are  in  St.  Petersburg.  There  are  nineteen  in  Spain, 
one  in  Toledo,  and  all  the  rest  in  the  Escurial  at 
Madrid.  Switzerland  possesses  fourteen,  Holland  six, 
Denmark  three,  and  Sweden  one. 

It  is  not  infrequent  that  manuscripts  once  entire 
exist  now  only  in  parts,  which  are  treasured  in  widely 
separated  libraries.  Two  uncials  of  great  imj^ortance 
were  discovered  in  fragments,  and  are  deposited  in 
distant  places,  a  portion  of  each  lying  in  the  library 
at  St.  Petersburg,  while  the  other  parts  are  in  the 
Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford.  Even  the  famous  Sinaitic 
manuscript   itself  has   forty-three   leaves   at  Leipzig, 

*  Prof.  A.  N.  Arnold  in  Baptist  Quarterly  for  October,  1867. 


46  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

while  the  larger  iDortion  of  the  volume  is  at  St.  Peters- 
burg. And  of  another  and  smaller  codex,  dating  from 
the  sixth  century  and  once  a  very  beautiful  volume, 
thirty-three  leaves  have  recently  been  discovered  in 
the  Isle  of  Patmos,  while  twelve  others  have  long 
been  in  the  jDOSsession  of  European  libraries,  four  in 
the  British  Museum,  six  in  the  Yatican  at  Rome,  and 
two  in  the  Imperial  Library  at  Vienna. 

The  method  of  indicating  the  manuscripts  which 
has  been  adopted  by  scholars  generally,  assigns  to 
each  one  a  special  letter  or  number.  The  term  codex,  — r 
the  Latin  word  for  a  book,  the  leaves  of  which  were 
not  rolled  together  as  in  the  volumina,  but  were  laid 
over  each  other  as  in  modern  volumes,  —  is  applied  to 
the  manuscripts,  as  a  shorter  and  more  convenient 
term,  and  they  are  spoken  of  as  Codex  A,  Codex  B, 
Codex  X,  Codex  33,  Codex  157,  etc.  It  must  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  the  whole  New  Testament 
is  very  rarely  contained  in  a  single  manuscript,  and 
the  same  letter  is  sometimes  applied  to  one  codex 
containing  one  portion  of  the  New  Testament,  and  to 
another  containing  another  portion.  For  instance, 
Codex  T>  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts  (one  manuscript)  is 
the  Codex  of  Beza  in  the  possession  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge ;  while  Codex  D  of  the  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  which  bears  a  close  resemblance  to  D  of  the 
Gospels  and  Acts  and  was  also  discovered  by  Beza,  is 
the  name  of  No.  107  in  the  National  Library  of  Paris. 
In  like  manner  there  are  three  manuscrijots  designated 
by  the  capital  letter  E.  Codex  E  of  the  Gospels  of 
the  eighth  century  is  at  Basle,  while  E  of  the  Acts, 


MANUSCRIPTS   OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  47 

belonging  to  the  sixth  century,  is  in  the  Bodleian 
Library  at  Oxford ;  and  E  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
dating  from  the  tenth  century,  is  at  St.  Petersburg. 
Such  a  method  of  designating  these  manuscripts  might 
seem  to  be  attended  with  confusion,  at  first  sight; 
but  really  there  is  no  serious  difficulty  presented.  If 
the  documents  are  referred  to  without  resj^ect  to  any 
particular  passage,  they  can  always  be  marked  with 
exactness  by  mentioning  the  portion  pf  Scripture  in- 
cluded, as,  for  example.  Codex  D  of  the  Epistles; 
while  the  discussion  of  any  special  text  of  itself  de- 
termines at  once  the  meaning  of  the  letter  attached 
to  the  codex  containing  it,  as,  if  a  passage  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  were  in  question,  a  simple 
reference  to  Codex  D  would  instantly  be  understood 
as  referring  to  No.  107  of  the  National  Library  at 
Paris,  and  not  to  Codex  D  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts. 

There  is  but  one  uncial  manuscript,  which  contains 
the  entire  New  Testament  —  the  word  e7itire  taken  in 
a  general  sense,  for  even  this  codex  has  rare  and  slight 
omissions.  Only  about  thirty  of  all  kinds  contain 
substantially  all  of  the  Christian  books.  The  copies 
which  have  the  Gospels  are  far  more  numerous  than 
those  of  other  parts  of  the  New  Testament.  ^ 

Sixty-three  uncials  of  all  sorts  are  tabulated  accord- 
ing to  the  most  recent  computations,*  and  fifty-six  of 
these  contain  the  Gospels,t  or  parts  of  them.  To  the 
number  of  uncials  should  now  be  added  the  Codex 

*  Compare  The  Critical  Handbook,  E.  C.   Mitchell  (1880) 
with  Tables  revised  by  Dr.  Ezra  Abbot. 
t  Scrivener ;  Plain  Introduction,  269. 


48  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

Rossanensis,  recently  discovered,  which  is  described 
in  detail  in  a  future  chapter.  It  is  to  be  reckoned 
with  the  copies  of  the  Gospels.  Some  of  these  uncials 
are  mere  fragments,  one  containing  only  six  leaves  (Y) 
with  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  verses  of  St.  John, 
another  (W^)  having  only  six  verses  of  the  same  Gos- 
pel. Of  the  cursive  manuscripts  six  hundred  and 
twenty-three  are  enumerated  by  Scrivener  as  having 
the  Gospels.  There  are  fourteen  uncials  and  tAvo 
hundred  and  thirty-two  cursives  of  the  Acts  and  Gen- 
eral Epistles ;  fifteen  uncials  and  two  hundred  and 
eighty-three  cursives  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul ;  five 
uncials  and  one  hundred  and  five  cursives  of  the 
Revelation;  sixty-one  uncial  and  two  hundred  and 
eighty-five  cursive  Evangelistaria  are  mentioned,  and 
seven  uncial  and  seventy-four  cursive  copies  of  the 
Praxapostolos.  After  giving  the  lists  of  these  man- 
uscripts, covering  many  pages  of  his  Introduction  to 
the  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  Scrivener  adds 
the  Greek  words  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  ix.  37  :  — 

"  The  harvest  truly  is  plenteous,  hut  the  laborers  are  few^ 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  even  this 
great  number  of  registered  manuscripts  does  not  ex- 
haust the  list  of  documents  employed  by  the  critic, 
for  it  does  not  mention  the  versions,  nor  the  patristic 
sources  for  the  determination  of  the  text. 

From  what  has  been  said  already,  it  will  readily  be 
seen  that  the  determination  of  the  age  of  a  manu- 
script is  of  first  importance.  This  is  accomplished  by 
a  careful  study  of  the  style  of  the  letters,  and  the  kind 


MAXUSCRIPTS    OF    THE    SCRIPTURES.  49 

of  material  n23on  which  it  is  written,  the  use  of  ac- 
cents, divisions,  i^imctuation,  marginal  adornments  or 
notes,  inscriptions,  subscriptions,  and  similar  signs. 
There  is  little  difficulty  in  assigning  a  date,  with  a 
very  considerable  degree  of  certainty,  to  many  of  the 
codices  in  our  possession,  and  of  the  more  doubtful 
cases  the  opinions  of  scholars  vary  not  more  than  by  a 
single  century  in  any  important  instance.  The  method 
of  ascertaining  the  date  of  the  writing  is  substantially 
the  same  as  that  which  may  be  applied  to  any  printed 
book.  A  rare  copy  of  Spenser's  works  lies  before  the 
writer,  and  a  glance  at  the  texture  of  the  paper  and 
at  the  quaint  type  is  sufficient  to  produce  the  convic- 
tion that  the  book  could  not  have  been  j^rinted  within 
the  last  fifty  years,  nothwithstanding  its  fresh  bind- 
ing ;  and  a  closer  inspection  leaves  no  room  for  wonder 
that  the  title-page  should  bear  the  date  1679.  A  cojDy 
of  Froissart's  Chronicles,  printed  in  black-letter  ujDon 
paper  that  has  been  yellowed  by  the  passage  of  hun- 
dreds of  years,  will  tell  its  story  of  antiquity  to  any 
child,  and  the  skilled  eye  of  the  lover  of  books  will 
have  little  trouble  in  assigning  it  a  date  within  a  few 
decades  of  the  true  one.  And  so  in  the  case  of  the 
manuscripts  under  consideration,  it  is  evident  that  if 
the  date  of  the  production  of  any  one  of  them  is  not 
inscribed  upon  it,  —  for  in  many  instances  the  date  is 
thus  written  and  needs  only  to  be  verified  by  a  con- 
currence of  the  characteristics  of  the  manuscript  it- 
self, —  the  fact  that  it  is  written  upon  vellum  of  an 
early  century  would  indicate  beyond  question  that  it 
was  not  produced  during  the  later  centuries,  in  which 


50  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

the  brown  and  rough  paper  made  of  cotton  rags  was 
used.  The  employment  of  uncials  of  a  particular 
form,  similar  to  those  found  in  other  manuscripts  of 
a  known  date,  settles  the  question  for  some  of  the 
codices,  examples  of  which  will  be  noticed  hereafter 
in  the  chapters  upon  the  most  celebrated  documents 
extant.  If  there  are  several  columns  upon  a  single 
page,  after  the  manner  more  anciently  employed  in 
the  production  of  the  papyrus-rolls,  the  manuscript 
may  be  ascribed  to  a  date  very  near  to  the  time  of 
such  rolls  themselves.  Again,  if  the  stichometrical 
form  of  writing  is  employed,  it  is  plain  that  some  date 
must  be  assigned  within  the  limits  of  the  time  in 
which  it  was  the  fashion  to  follow  the  example  set  by 
Euthalius  of  Alexandria.  Or  if  it  is  a  palimpsest 
which  is  to  be  examined,  it  is  safe  to  assign  to  the 
older  writing,  over  which  the  later  text  was  written, 
a  great  antiquity,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Codex  of 
Ephraem,  as  it  is  called,  and  which  surely  belonged  to 
the  fifth  century.  But  the  more  minute  signs  by 
which  the  age  of  a  manuscript  may  be  tested  are  of 
still  greater  importance,  for  they  serve  to  fix  the  time 
of  the  writing  with  greater  exactness,  after  the  gen- 
eral period  has  been  determined.  Slight  peculiarities 
in  the  formation  of  the  letters  and  the  use  of  ad- 
ditional marks  frequently  betray  valuable  secrets,  and 
in  some  cases  even  the  hand  of  the  transcriber  is 
revealed.  Tlie  celebrated  critic.  Dr.  F.  H.  Scrivener, 
speaks  of  three  manuscripts  as  certainly  written  by 
the  same  scribe,  and  he  adds  a  fourth  to  tlie  number, 
whose  elegant  characters  and   highly  finished  pages 


MANUSCPJPTS    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  51 

bear  almost  unmistakable  testimonj^to  the  skill  of  the 
same  accomplished  workman.  It  would  be  impossible, 
as  well  as  unnecessary,  in  the  absence  of  the  manu- 
scripts themselves,  or  of  facsimile  copies,  to  indicate 
to  the  reader  these  slighter  marks,  which  are  of  such 
great  importance  to  critical  scholars.  It  suffices  to 
say,  that  the  utmost  confidence  may  be  j^laced  in  the 
decisions  drawn  from  them  by  these  competent  critics, 
and  that  if  anything  may  be  believed  upon  evidence 
afforded  by  others,  the  case  of  the  antiquity  and 
authority  of  the  most  celebrated  copies  of  the  Scrip- 
tures may  be  considered  settled. 

It  w^ould  be  a  great  error  to  suppose  that  critical 
work  upon  the  manuscripts  has  only  been  done  in  our 
later  times.  It  is  frequently  asserted  by  those  who 
oppose  the  Scriptures  on  the  ground  of  genuineness, 
that  the  age  in  which  they  were  written  and  came 
into  use  was  wholly  uncritical,  and  that  a  spurious 
document  might  easily  have  found  its  way  to  the 
acceptance  of  the  churches.  Just  the  contrary,  how- 
ever, is  the  case.  The  quotations  of  the  earliest 
Fathers,  to  which  brief  reference  has  already  been 
made,  prove  beyond  question  that  they  studied  the 
documents  in  their  possession  with  scrupulous  care, 
comparing  one  w^ith  another  and  noting  their  differ- 
ences, weighing  the  evidence  for  the  truth,  not  only 
of  every  entire  work,  but  of  every  reading  of  the  vari- 
ous copies,  with  eager  solicitude.  Origen  was  a  dis- 
criminating student  and  editor  of  the  Septuagint,  and 
his  labors  upon  the  text  of  the  New  Testament  were 
the  work  of  an  acute  and  trained  scholar ;  and  Eusebius, 


52  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

a  man  of  the  greaffest  learning,  spared  no  pains  nor  ex- 
23ense,  in  journeys  and  study,  to  discover  sources  of 
Christian  history,  and  his  division  of  all  the  books  in  the 
hands  of  the  churches  into  three  classes,  the  genuine,  the 
disputed,  and  the  spurious,  proves  the  care  with  which 
such  documents  were  scrutinized.  Evidence  of  this 
kind,  from  the  middle  of  the  third  and  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  centuries,  is  of  indisputable  importance 
in  critical  study.  But  the  very  manuscripts  themselves 
bear  testimony  to  the  constant  efforts  through  all  the 
succeeding  centuries  to  secure  a  correct  text  of  Scrip- 
ture, for  they  are  filled  with  marginal  notes  and  cor- 
rections, often  lamentably  false,  but  showing  the  desire 
to  reach  the  truth,  if  possible.  Moreover  the  exertions 
of  learned  communities,  such  as  those  of  Alexandria 
and  Carthage,  can  by  no  means  be  forgotten.  In  these 
centres  of  learning,  there  was  the  greatest  interest 
manifested  in  the  new  Christian  literature  and  its  prin- 
cipal doctrines.  Writers  were  found  to  oppose,  as  weli 
as  to  favor,  and  the  result  of  the  numerous  controver- 
sies wa^  inevitably  in  favor  of  a  close  discrimination 
of  any  differences  in  the  manuscripts  which  were  the 
subjects  of  discussion.  And  yet,  it  is  not  claimed  that 
even  the  most  elaborate  studies  of  the  early  centuries 
are  to  be  at  all  compared  with  the  researches  of  more 
modern  times.  It  was  very  natural  when  editions  of 
the  Bible  began  to  appear  in  ])rint  in  the  fifteenth,  and 
esj^ecially  in  the  sixteenth,  century,  that  the  text  thus 
given  to  the  world  should  at  once  assert  for  itself  a 
peculiar  authority,  and  also  be  subjected  to  a  wide 
criticism  upon  the  part  of  scholars.     In  the  year  1502 


MANUSCRIPTS    OF    THE    SCRIPTURES.  53 

Cardinal  Ximenes  engaged  a  large  number  of  scholars 
to  prepare  an  edition  of  the  whole  Bible  in  the  origi- 
nal Hebrew  and  Greek  with  the  Chaldee  of  Onkelos, 
the  Septuagint  Greek,  and  the  Vulgate.  This  immense 
undertaking  was  commenced  by  the  study  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  was  finished  in  1514  and  published 
in  1520.  For  this  edition  the  celebrated  scholars  en- 
gaged in  the  work  had  the  use  of  manuscripts  said  to 
have  been  put  at  their  disposal  by  the  guardians  of  the 
Papal  Library  at  Rome.  What  these  manuscripts 
were  has  never  been  clearly  known,  though  they  were 
probably  of  late  dates.  This  edition  was  called  the 
Complutensian  'New  Testament,  from  Complutum, 
where  the  work  was  executed.  An  edition  by  Eras- 
mus followed  in  1516,  and  another  in  1519,  confessedly 
prepared  with  too  much  haste  and  from  manuscripts 
still  preserved  at  Basle,  dating  from  about  the  sixteenth 
century,  with  one  or  two  others  somewhat  older  but 
not  of  prime  value.  Other  editions  appeared  from 
time  to  time,  the  names  of  Colinseus,  Stephens,  Beza, 
the  Elzevirs,  and  others,  standing  upon  their  pages,  but 
still  deficient  in  the  great  elements  of  sound  criticism 
afterward  to  be  enunciated.  Out  of  these  early  efforts, 
however,  grew  the  term  Textus  Receptus,  or  the  Re- 
ceived Text.  The  name  has  sometimes  been  applied 
to  the  text  of  Stephens,  sometimes  to  that  of  Beza, 
and  when  the  edition  of  the  Elzevirs  in  1624  appeared, 
to  some  degree  uniting  the  texts  of  Stephens  and  Beza, 
the  term  was  also  applied  to  the  new  work.  With 
some  indefiniteness,  therefore,  and  yet  with  a  general 
reference  to  the  text  of  this  period,  the  term  Textus 


54  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

Receptus  has  come  down  to  this  day.  But  it  is  mani- 
fest that  the  comparatively  few  and  late  manuscripts 
used  in  the  preparation  of  these  early  editions  could 
only  give  results  often  imperfect,  and  gradually  the 
desires  of  Biblical  scholars  were  kindled  for  a  further 
correction  of  the  text.  Bentley  in  England  undertook 
the  work,  but  his  edition  was  never  completed.  Ger- 
man scholars  united  their  efforts  in  the  task  of  classi- 
fying existing  documents.  Griesbach,  Scholz,  and 
others  brought  their  departments  of  study  up  to  the 
dignity  of  science.  But  it  was  reserved  for  Lachmann, 
beginning  in  1821,  to  give  application  to  the  great 
principles  of  criticism  which  are  generally  acknowl- 
edged at  the  present  time,  and  which  demand  an  utter 
freedom  from  the  claims  of  the  received  text,  conced- 
ing authority  to  it  only  as  it  is  supported  by  the  most 
ancient  and  valuable  manuscripts. 

Thus  it  was  that  only  in  the'^preseht  century  the 
science  of  Biblical  Criticism  cast  off  its  shackles  and 
advanced  to  its  greatest  triumphs.  Almost  simultar- 
neously  the  renowned  scholars,  Constantin  Tischendorf 
in  Germany,  and  Samuel  Prideaux  Tregelles,  began 
their  publications.  Other  scholars  of  almost  equal 
note  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  same  pursuits 
with  unexampled  and  well  rewarded  ardor.  Great 
discoveries,  hereafter  to  be  detailed  in  these  pages, 
and  of  the  most  romantic  interest,  have  contributed 
their  invaluable  aid  to  the  revision  of  the  sacred  text. 
No  longer  are  the  precious  secrets  of  the  earliest 
Christian  documents  buried  away  in  monasteries  and 
libraries,  but  in  editions  of  the  New  Testament  of 
little  cost  may  be  possessed  by  every  one. 


MANUSCRIPTS    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  55 

The  question  may  well  be  raised,  however,  concern- 
ing the  discovery  and  use  of  the  ancient  copies  of  the 
Scriptures :  Is  there  no  chance  of  mistake  ?  Is  it  not 
possible  even  that  the  critics  may  be  deceived  by  de- 
liberate attempts  at  imposture?  In  the  eager  search 
for  such  documents  —  these 

"rolls 
And  old  records  from  ancient  times  derived, 
Some  made  in  books,  some  in  long  parchment  scrolls, 
.  That  were  worm-eaten  all  and  full  of  canker-holes," — 

the  value  of  them  has  been  fully  published,  and  some- 
times great  sums  offered  for  them.  May  not  the 
"  worm-eaten  "  and  "  canker-holed  "  vellum  have  been 
counterfeited,  the  text  accurately  forged,  and  the 
whole  fraud  palmed  off  upon  guileless  students,  who 
have  been  only  too  ready  to  believe  in  what  promised 
satisfaction  to  their  long-cherished  desires  ? 

Such  attempts  at  imposture  have  actually  been 
made,  but  the  very  fact  that  they  were  detected  and 
are  now  famous  as  among  the  most  skilfully  executed 
frauds  the  world  has  ever  seen,  is  a  guarantee  of  the 
superior  watchfulness  and  the  critical  learning  of 
Christian  scholars.  No  bolder  attempts  to  deceive, 
nor  any  more  nearly  successful  in  the  case  of  any 
important  Scriptural  documents,  have  been  made  than 
those  which  have  rendered  the  name  of  Constantine 
Simonides  famous,  in  connection  especially  with  the 
Sinaitic  manuscript  discovered  by  Tischendorf.  An 
account  of  this  attempt  must  be  deferred  to  the  chap- 
ter upon  that  celebrated  codex,  but  similar  efforts 
may  be  mentioned  here,  as  illustrative  of  the  method 


56  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

pursued.  This  same  man,  Constantine  Simonides, 
early  in  the  year  1856,  through  the  aid  of  a  professor 
in  Leipzig,  undertook  to  sell  a  manuscript  of  the 
Egyptian  History  of  XJranios,  son  of  Anaximines,  to 
the  Academy  of  Berlin.  A  few  leaves  of  the  very 
ancient  and  important  Shepherd  of  Hermas  were  also 
offered,  and  these  were  bought,  while  twenty-five 
hundred  thalers,  only  half  the  price  of  the  history, 
were  paid.  At  this  juncture  a  message  arrived  from 
Professor  Lykurgos  of  Athens,  that  both  the  manu- 
scripts were  probably  spurious.  Professor  Tischen- 
dorf  at  once  examined  them  critically  and  pronounced 
them  false.  But  when  people  have  been  cheated  they 
do  not  like  to  confess  it,  and  in  this  instance  there 
was  much  oj^position  to  the  decision  of  Tischendorf. 
Simonides  himself  had  not  ventured  to  go  to  Berlin 
with  his  wares,  and  the  negotiations  had  been  effected 
by  proxies,  as  already  said.  Tischendorf,  who  had 
examined  the  documents  in  Leij^zig,  instantly  tele- 
graphed to  Humboldt  in  Berlin,  and  the  despatch 
was  given  to  the  president  of  the  Academy.  By  his 
order  the  documents  were  tested  microscoj^ically  and 
chemically,  and  Simonides  was  promptly  arrested. 
But  this  was  not  the  only  attempt  made  by  this  man. 
He  offered  to  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford,  Eng- 
land, several  manuscripts,  some  of  which  were  genu- 
ine. These  were  of  no  very  great  value,  but  were 
discussed  by  the  librarian  with  the  vendor,  and  a 
ready  agreement  as  to  their  belonging  to  the  tenth, 
twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries  was  obtained.  But 
then  a  few  fragments  were  produced,  handled  with 


MANUSCRIPTS    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES.  57 

the  greatest  care,  which  revealed  an  uncial  text  appar- 
ently of  the  highest  antiquity.  The  vellum  upon 
which  it  was  written  was  stained  by  age,  and  bore 
every  mark  of  having  come  down  from  a  very  remote 
time.  The  librarian  smelt  of  the  leaves,  gave  them 
back  to  the  vendor,  with  the  single  remark  that  the 
manuscript  dated  from  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century^  and  the  foiled  Sunonides  departed.  Unfortu- 
nately, however,  he  found  a  lover  of  such  treasures  in 
a  private  home  in  Worcestershire,  and  sold  them  there 
for  a  large  sum.  If  it  were  a  question  only  of  the 
materials  used,  imposition  might  be  easily  practised  ; 
but  the  text  betrays  it,  and  the  most  exact  imitation 
in  other  respects  must  always  fail  in  the  text  to  meet 
the  demands  of  the  deeply  versed  scholarship  of  mod- 
ern days.  Scrivener  says  that  "  with  respect  to  Bib- 
lical manuscripts  in  particular,  we  may  confidently 
assert  that  there  are  fifty  persons  at  least  now  in  Eng- 
land who,  on  internal  grounds  alone,  from  their  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  what  a  genuine  record  ought  to  and 
must  contain,  would  at  once  detect  with  perfect  ease 
any  —  the  most  highly  finished  —  imitation  that  dis- 
honest skill  could  execute,  provided  the  document  ex- 
tended beyond  the  length  of  a  very  few  lines."  ^ 

*  Six  Lectures,  p.  22. 


58  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    ALEXANDRIISrE    MAJSTUSCEIPT. 

The  Codex  A  is  the  earliest  that  was  thoroughly 
studied  by  scholars  for  the  purpose  of  correcting  the 
text  of  the  New  Testament  and  determining,  with  a 
greater  degree  of  accuracy  than  had  been  previously 
attained,  what  must  have  been  the  original  reading  of 
the  manuscripts  given  to  the  churches  in  the  apostolic 
age. 

This  Codex  is,  however,  only  the  third  in  point  of 
value  and  antiquity,  being  outranked  in  these  respects 
by  B,  the  most  celebrated  document  of  the  Vatican, 
and  by  J^,  the  Sinaitic  manuscript  in  the  possession 
of  the  Russian  government. 

The  Alexandrine  manuscript  is  in  the  British 
Museum.  It  was  presented  to  Charles  I.  in  1628  by 
Cyril  Lucar,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who 
brought  it  himself  from  Egypt.  When  the  British 
Museum  was  founded  in  1753,  it  was  immediately 
transferred  from  the  royal  private  collection  to  this 
national  depository.  It  is  in  four  volumes,  three  of 
which  contain  the  Old  Testament  in  the  Septuagint 
version,  and  the  fourth  the  New  Testament  with  many 
defects,  for  it  commences  Avith  the  sixth  verse  of  the 
twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew's  Gospel,  omits  the 


THE    ALEXANDRINE   MANUSCRIPT.  59 

passage  from  John  vi.  50  to  John  viii.  52,  and  also 
that  from  2  Cor.  iv.  13  to  xii.  6.  In  several  places, 
too,  single  letters  have  been  cut  off  in  the  process  of 
binding.  But  at  the  close  of  the  New  Testament  is 
added  a  work  of  rare  value,  since  it  is  the  only  extant 
copy  of  the  earliest  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  the 
Epistle  of  Clement  of  Rome  to  the  Corinthians,  to- 
gether with  a  part  of  a  second  epistle,  whose  author- 
ship is  more  doubtful.  The  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, who  secured  the  manuscript  during  his  previous 
patriarchate  in  Egypt,*  testified  in  an  autograph  note 
upon  the  document  itself,  that  the  tradition  in  Egyj)t 
concerning  it  was,  that  it  was  written  by  Thecla,  a 
noble  lady  of  Egypt,  thirteen  hundred  years  previous 
to  its  acquisition  by  himself,  which  would  place  its 
origin  early  in  the  fourth  century.  This  is  consistent 
with  an  inscription  in  Arabic  upon  the  reverse  of 
the  first  leaf,  which  also  declares  it  to  be  by  the 
hand  of  Thecla,  the  martyr.  But  this  declaration 
carries  suspicion  in  itself.  Thecla  the  martyr  lived 
at  a  very  early  date ;  and  in  the  first  Christian  centu- 
ries a  vast  number  of  legends  had  gathered  about 
her  name.  Her  history  is  referred  to  by  many  great 
writers,  Cyprian  and  Eusebius,  Epiphanius,  Austin, 
Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  Chrysostom  and  others,  re- 
cording the  popular  esteem  in  which  her  faith  and 
virtues  were  held.     Among  the   apocryphal  writings 

*  According  to  another  account  emanating  from  one  of 
Cyril's  deacons,  he  obtained  the  manuscript  at  Mount  Athos, 
where  he  dwelt  for  a  long  period  previous  to  his  Patriarchate  in 
Alexandria.     Comp.  Bleek,  Einleitung,  §  269,  1. 


60  THE   STORY  OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

that  have  claimed  a  place  in  the  New  Testament, 
is  one  called  the  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,  which 
TertuUian  says  was  forged  by  a  presbyter  of  Asia, 
who,  "when  convicted,  confessed  that  he  did  it  out 
of  respect  of  Paul."  The  manuscript  of  this  for- 
gery is  in  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford,  though  it 
has  been  denied  that  this  is  the  original  Acts  of 
Paul  and  Thecla,  that  was  in  the  hands  of  early 
Christians.  All  this  readiness  to  connect  the  name 
of  Thecla  with  ancient  Christian  history,  and  the 
sanctity  that  was  attached  to  her  person,  would  nat- 
urally aid  any  tendency  to  unite  her  name  with  this 
valuable  manuscript.  If  the  idea  were  once  started, 
that  the  martyr  and  saint  made  this  precious  volume, 
it  would  find  constantly  increasing  support  from  the 
veneration  bestowed  upon  her  memory.  But  the  fact 
that  her  martyrdom  was  so  very  early  renders  it 
entirely  imiDrobable,  and  certain  signs  in  the  manu- 
script itself  declare  it  to  have  been  im23ossible  that  it 
was  written  by  her  hand.  May  not  the  work  have 
been  done  by  some  other  Thecla,  then,  who  has  been 
confounded  with  the  martyr  on  account  of  the  23opular 
predisposition  to  honor  the  saint?  It  is  possible. 
Another  Thecla,  who  was  a  friend  and  valued  assistant 
of  Gregory  of  Nazianzum  in  the  fourth  century,  may 
have  been  the  copyist  of  the  Alexandrine  pages,  and 
yet  there  is  nothing  to  prove  the  fact,  while  some 
indications  would  seem  to  assign  the  work  to  a  some- 
what later  date,  probably  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  the  conclusion  reached  by  Scrivener,*  though 
*  Six  Lectures,  p.  54;  Plain  Introduction,  p.  92. 


THE    ALEXANDRINE    MANUSCRirT.  (U 

Davidson  has  assigned  it  to  the  middle  of  that  cen- 
tury.* On  the  whole,  the  conjecture  of  Tregelles  as 
to  the  copyist  seems  the  most  likely  to  be  true.  He 
suggests,  that  the  beginning  of  the  New  Testament 
portion  of  the  manuscrij^t.  Matt.  xxv.  6,  is  a  part  of 
the  appointed  lesson  in  the  Greek  church  for  the 
festival  of  Saint  Thecla,  and  that  her  name  may  have 
been  written  on  the  margin  at  the  top  of  the  first 
page,  a  superscription  that  might  have  been  readily 
mistaken  for  the  name  of  the  writer  by  whose  hand 
the  work  was  done.  The  margins  have  been  narrowed 
in  the  process  of  binding  and  the  name  has  disap- 
peared, if  it  was  ever  there;  but  certainly  the  fact 
that  the  first  words  of  the  New  Testament  portion  are 
a  part  of  the  lesson  appointed  for  this  saint's  day, 
is  highly  suggestive  of  the  reason  why  her  name 
should  be  so  intimately  connected  with  the  codex. 

The  vellum  of  this  ancient  book  is  well  preserved, 
though  in  many  places  holes  appear  in  the  images,  and 
the  material  is  so  fragile  that  it  is  kej^t  under  glass, 
and  none  but  the  most  competent  scholars  are  allowed 
to  touch  it,  and  these  only  for  the  purj^oses  of  textual 
study.  The  letters  are  uncial,  rounder,  larger,  and 
more  elegant  than  those  in  the  Vatican  Codex.  There 
is  no  separation  between  the  Avords,  though  occasional 
marks  of  punctuation  aj^pear ;  there  are  no  accents  or 
breathing  marks,  no  cases  of  stichometry,  and  the 
abbreviations  are  not  frequent.  The  text  is  divided 
into  sections,  or  titloi,  and  Ammonian  sections,  called 
heads,  but  there  are  no  such  divisions  as  those  origin- 
*  Bib.  Crit.  p.  719. 


62  THE    STORY    OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

ated  by  Euthalius,  though  paragraphs  and  periods  are 
frequently  marked  by  a  new  line  and  initial  letter. 
This  manuscript  is  the  most  ancient  in  which  capital 
letters  occur.  Some  of  them  are  larger  than  others,  but 
they  are  written  in  the  same  ink  as  the  body  of  the 
text.  In  several  places,  at  the  beginnings  of  books, 
the  first  line  is  in  vermilion.  Each  page  has  two 
columns,  each  of  fifty  lines,  with  about  twenty  letters 
to  the  line. 

.Whoever  the  copyist  was,  though  saint  and  martyr 
Thecla  herself,  the  work  shows  many  signs  of  careless- 
ness and  inattention.  There  are  frequent  omissions 
and  many  mistakes  in  spelling.  Corrections  often  mar 
the  page,  and  traces  of  the  knife  or  sponge  are  very 
often  discoverable.  Letters  originally  omitted  are 
written  in  between  the  lines  over  the  spaces  they 
should  occupy.  And  ai^parently  the  text  has  at  some 
time  been  subjected  to  a  revision,  for  certain  correc- 
tions appear,  though  unfortunately  not  always  in  the 
right  place.  In  addition  to  these  defects  there  are 
many  occasioned  by  age,  as  when  the  first  two  or 
three  letters  of  a  line,  those  nearest  the  margin,  have 
become  obliterated. 

The  general  aspect  of  a  page  of  the  Alexandrine 
manuscript  may  be  better  imagined  from  the  follow- 
ing illustration,  which  is  a  facsimile  of  the  original 
text  and  its  divisions.  The  passage  chosen  is  that 
in  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John  i.  1-7.  It  is  one 
free  from  such  defects  as  have  just  been  noted,  but  it 
gives  a  singular  example  of  the  way  in  which  a  new 
section  is  marked  by  a  break  in  the  middle  of  a  line, 


'r 
o 


0 

0 

0^ 


CD  "^ 
7  1 

Ob 

•<f2  7  > 

ztoP 


0 


7.  2:^H 

Bite 

CD  f-A-l  ■< 

Nip 

tzB-e-^ 


0 

z 

0 

> 

0 
^7 

?! 

4 


lb 


L^-^J 


SL> 


> 

2Rd 


0 


0 


(■<i-rv 


(tfltLJVs. 


THE   ALEXANDRINE   MANUSCRIPT.  65 

while  the  first  letter  of  the  following  line  is  made 
large,  as  if  it  were  the  initial  of  the  new  section.  In 
this  case  the  enlarged  letter  does  not  even  begin  a 
word,  but  stands  in  the  middle  of  one.  The  facsimile 
of  the  plate  is  from  the  English  edition  of  Home's 
Introduction. 

The  Greek  of  this  illustration,  put  into  correspond- 
ing form  in  English,  would  appear  somewhat  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Inthebeginningwasthewordandtheword 
waswithgd-andgdwastheword- 
hewasinthebeginningwithgd 
allthingsbyhimvveremade-andwith 
outhimwasmadenotonething 
thatwasmadeinhimlifewas- 
andthelifewasthelightofmn 
andthelightinthedarknessshi 
neth-andthedarknessitnotcom 
prehended  therewasamnse 

Ntfromgdthenameofhi 
mwasjohnthisonecame 
fora  witnes  sth  athemight  witn 
essconcerningthelightthatal 
lmightbelievethroughhim 

Each  book  is  closed  by  ornamental  designs,  not  very 
elaborate,  but  neatly  done  in  the  same  ink  as  the  text, 
with  the  name  of  the  book  written  within  the  enclosed 
space. 

As  already  remarked  in  the  beginning  of  the  chapter, 
the  Alexandrine  manuscript  was  the  first  to  be  carefully 
applied  to  the  correction  of  the  text  of  the  New  Testar 
ment.  The  first  scholar  who  had  facilities  afforded  him 
for  studying  the  Codex  critically  was  Patrick  Young, 


66  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

the  librarian  to  King  Charles  I.  Three  separate  col- 
lations of  the  manuscript  with  the  received  texts  were 
made  by  different  scholars,  and  then,  in  1786,  the  text 
of  the  manuscript  itself  was  edited  and  published  by 
Woide.  It  was  a  facsimile  edition,  for  which  the 
tyjDes  were  cut  with  great  care.  This  edition  was,  in 
general,  very  accurate,  and  the  few  errors  were  such 
as  to  readily  betray  themselves  and  suggest  the  cor- 
rect reading.  It  is  said  that  a  comparison  of  Woide^s 
edition  with  the  manuscript  itself,  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  accuracy  of 
the  j3ublished  copy,  revealed  errors  only  in  two  letters, 
neither  of  which  could  possibly  lead  to  a  false  render- 
ing of  the  words  in  which  the  mistake  occurred.  Such 
was  the  pioneer  effort  to  lay  before  the  scholars  of  the 
world  the  pages  of  the  most  ancient  manuscripts  of 
the  Scripture,  line  for  line,  word  for  word,  letter  for 
letter,  point  for  point,  not  one  peculiarity  left  un- 
marked, in  order  that  many  minds  might  work  upon 
the  sacred  task  of  proving  the  text  already  in  the 
hands  of  the  Christian  world,  and  ascertaining  more 
exactly,  if  possible,  what  were  the  very  words  of  the 
original  documents  that  came  from  the^  inspired 
writers  themselves* 


THE   VATICAN   MANUSCRIPT.  67 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    VATICAN    MANUSCRIPT. 

Until  within  comparatively  few  years  the  Codex 
B,  or  Yaticanus,  so  named  from  the  library  of  which 
it  forms  the  chief  ornament,  was  the  most  important 
manuscript  in  the  possession  of  the  Christian  world. 
And  it  may  even  be  the  case  that  the  remarkable  dis- 
covery of  the  document  to  be  described  in  the  follow- 
ing chapter  has  not  superseded  this  venerable  copy 
in  its  foremost  rank  among  the  transcripts  of  the  sacred 
originals. 

The  Vatican  Library  was  founded  by  Pope  Nicholas 
v.,  a  great  scholar  and  patron  of  learning,  in  the  year 
1448.  Many  previous  attempts  had  been  made  to  col- 
lect and  preserve  valuable  works,  but  it  Avas  reserved 
for  this  energetic  Pope  to  take  the  measures  which 
should  be  finally  successful,  and  which  without  inter- 
mission should  receive  the  favor  of  succeeding  pontiffs 
even  till  to-day.  More  than  one  hundred  thousand  vol- 
umes are  there  gathered,  and  the  collection  is  especially 
rich  in  manuscripts,  of  which  there  are  nearly  twenty- 
five  thousand.  These  are  divided  into  three  sections, 
the  Latin  containing  more  than  seventeen  thousand, 
the  Greek  about  three  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty, 
and  the  Oriental  over  two  thousand.    Among  them 


68  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

are  many  treasures  of  almost  inestimable  price,  but 
never  from  the  days  of  Pope  Nicholas  himself  until 
the  present  time  has  the  Vatican  Library  possessed 
any  work  equal  in  importance  to  the  Codex  B.,  which 
is  numbered  1209  in  the  class-catalogue. 

This  manuscript  has  probably  been  in  the  Vatican 
Library  from  the  time  of  its  establishment.  It  appears 
in  the  first  catalogue,  made  in  1475.  Certain  charac- 
teristics of  the  text  seem  to  indicate  an  Alexandrine 
origin,  but  this  cannot  be  determined  with  accuracy. 
It  has  been  thought  that  it  may  once  have  belonged 
to  the  library  of  a  learned  Greek  ecclesiastic  named 
Bessarion,  who  became  estranged  from  the  Greek 
church  through  the  debates  of  the  Councils  of  Ferrara 
and  Florence,  sought  naturalization  in  Italy,  and  was 
preferred  to  the  Cardinalate  by  Pope  Eugenius  IV., 
who  was  the  immediate  predecessor  of  the  founder  of 
the  Vatican  Library.  His  house  in  Rome  was  almost 
an  academy,  the  repository  of  a  large  collection  of 
choice  manuscripts  and  the  resort  of  learned  men.  It 
is  hardly  probable  that  the  Codex  B,  however,  formed 
a  23art  of  his  collection,  for  at  his  death  he  bequeathed 
his  library,  with  all  its  manuscripts,  to  the  city  of 
Venice,  thus  beginning  the  Library  of  St.  Mark's  in 
that  city.  Perhaps  nothing  more  is  true  than  that 
it  received  some  corrections,  and  the  filling  up  of 
certain  lacunm^  out  of  a  manuscript  in  the  Cardinal's 
possession. 

Codex  B  is  perhaps  a  hundred  years  older  than  the 
Alexandrine  manuseript,  and  belongs  certainly  to  the 
fourth  century.   Tischendorf  considered  it  of  the  same 


THE    VATICAN   MANUSCRIPT.  69 

date  as  the  Sinaitic  manuscript,  to  be  si^oken  of  in  the 
next  chapter,  and  Tregelles  believed  it  to  have  been 
in  existence  as  early  as  the  Council  of  Nice  in  325. 
At  all  events  the  division  of  the  New  Testament  into 
paragraphs  in  a  manner  which  became  utterly  disused 
after  the  Eusebian  canons  were  introduced,  about  the 
year  340,  shows  that  it  was  written  prior  to  that  date. 
It  contains  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Old  Testa^ 
ment,  of  which,  however,  considerable  portions  have 
been  lost,  all  the  Book  of  Genesis  to  Chaj^ter  xlvi.  48, 
and  Psalms  cv.  to  cxxxvii.  inclusive ;  and  the  New 
Testament,  with  the  exception  of  the  Epistles  to  Phi- 
lemon and  Titus,  the  tAvo  to  Timothy,  that  to  the 
Hebrews  after  the  fourteenth  verse  of  Chapter  ix,  and 
the  whole  of  the  Revelation.  These  books  of  the  New 
Testament  are  indeed  found  in  the  volume,  but  they 
do  not  belong  to  the  ancient  manuscript,  being  the 
product  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  whole  of  the  text  is  bound  in  one  volume  in 
red  morocco,  a  quarto,  measuring  ten  and  a  half  inches 
in  length,  ten  inches  in  breadth,  and  between  four  and 
five  inches  in  thickness.  There  are  759  very  thin 
and  delicate  leaves  of  vellum,  of  which  146  belong  to 
the  New  Testament.  The  text  is  uncial,  written  in 
three  narrow  columns  to  a  page,  and  the  characters 
are  clear,  simple,  and  beautiful,  a  little  smaller  than 
those  of  the  Codex  Alexandrinus,  and  a  little  larger 
than  those  of  the  manuscript  of  Philodemus,  a  treatise 
on  music^which  was  the  first  of  the  Herculaneum  rolls 
successfully  opened  and  given  to  the  public.  In  fact 
the  Vatican  manuscript  is  the  most  similar  to  these 


70  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCEIPTS. 

rolls  of  Herculaneum  of  all  of  the  copies  of  the  Scrip- 
tures thus  far  discovered.  There  are  no  divisions 
between  the  words,  but  where  a  change  from  one  sub- 
ject to  another  occurs  there  is  sometimes  a  space  of 
an  entire  letter,  sometimes  of  only  half  a  letter,  to 
mark  the  transition.  In  the  original  writing  the  initial 
letters  were  of  the  same  size  as  all  the  others,  but  a 
later  hand  has  written  larger  initials  over  the  old  and 
simpler  characters.  No  punctuation  appears  except 
such  as  has  been  interpolated  by  later  scribes,  and 
this  is  rare,  only  four  points  being  inserted  in  the  first 
six  chapters  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew.  As  it  stands 
at  present  the  text  is  provided  with  accents  and 
marks  of  aspiration,  which  were  at  one  time  consid- 
ered the  work  of  the  original  writer.  Indeed  this 
question  gave  rise  to  a  very  strange  and  almost  in- 
explicable disagreement  among  some  of  the  earlier 
critics.*  Blanchini  gave  a  facsimile  in  which  neither 
the  accents  nor  breathings  appeared,  and  Montfaucon 
strongly  asserted  the  same  thing.  But  Birch,  in  his 
Prolegomena,  declared  that  it  had  both,  and  criticized 
the  former  editors  for  not  marking  the  fact.  At  last 
Hug  determined,  by  the  use  of  powerful  glasses,  that  the 
accents  and  breathings,  which  were  really  there,  were 
in  a  different  ink  from  the  main  body  of  the  text  and 
had  been  added  by  some  later  scribe.  Titles  to  the 
various  books  are  written  above  them,  and  subscrip- 
tions are  also  found,  which  for  the  most  part  merely 
repeat  the  titles.  Sometimes  words  are  added  by  later 
copyists,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans, 

*  Davidson,  Bib.  Crit.  p.  722. 


THE    VATICAN   MANUSCRIPT.  71 

where  To  the  Itomans  is  the  genuine  subscription, 
and  the  words  It  was  written  from  Corinth  were 
added. 

The  long  passage  of  time  faded  the  ink  of  the  text, 
and  at  some  early  date  the  letters  were  retouched  by 
a  careful  hand  throughout  large  portions  of  the  man- 
uscript. This  gives  a  very  peculiar  appearance  to  the 
document,  and  has  rendered  the  difficulties  of  its 
critical  study  considerably  greater.  A  remarkable 
treatment  of  the  Epistles  of  Paul  is  to  be  noticed,  for 
they  are  written  as  if  they  were  all  one  book,  and  the 
notation  of  the  sections  is  continuous  throughout  all. 

This  celebrated  manuscript  has  always  been  consid- 
ered of  the  highest  value  in  the  determination  of  the 
true  readings  of  Scripture.  And  yet  it  has  always 
been  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  any  scholars, 
-except  such  as  have  had  official  connection  with  the 
Vatican  Library,  have  gained  access  to  its  pages.  Its 
first  collation  was  made  in  1669  by  Bartolocci,  and  a 
very  imperfect  transcript  of  it  is  now  in  Paris.  The 
next  was  by  an  Italian  named.  Mico,  and  was  executed 
for  the  assistance  of  Bentley  about  1725,  when  he  j^ro- 
posed  his  edition  of  the  New  Testament  in  Greek. 
Other  collations  appeared.  No  work  of  equal  impor- 
tance  was  attempted  upon  the  manuscript,  until  Car- 
dinal Mai  undertook  a  facsimile  edition,  which  was 
completed  in  1838.  The  history  of  this  edition  is 
strange,  and  to  some  degree  obscure.  The  purpose  of 
the  Cardinal  himself  seems  to  have  been  changeable, 
for  some  representations  are  to  the  effect  that  he  de- 


72  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS . 

sired  to  make  his  work  a  facsimile,  while  others  i^rove 
from  his  own  words  tliat  it  was  to  be  only  a  close  imi- 
tation of  the  text,  and  a  work  for  more  general  use, 
"like  the  English  edition  of  Mill."  However  this 
may  be,  the  learned  Cardinal  spent  his  leisure  hours 
during  a  period  of  ten  years  upon  the  work,  printing 
five  quarto  volumes,  and  subsequently  the  New  Testa^ 
ment  separately  in  a  cheap  octavo  form.  The  work 
was  not  given  to  the  public,  however,  for  several  years. 
For  some  reason  it  did  not  receive  the  approval  of  the 
Roman  censors  of  the  press.  It  is  said  that  when 
Rome  was  in  the  hands  of  Republicans  and  the  Pope 
had  fled  to  Gaeta,  Cardinal  Mai  offered  his  work  to  a 
publisher  at  Berlin,  who  declined  the  proposal  on 
account  of  the  high  price  demanded  by  the  author. 
The  Po23e  returned  to  his  capital  in  1850,  and  the  fet- 
ters of  pai3al  authority  once  more  closed  around  the 
publication  of  many  books  useful  to  the  world.  In 
1854  Cardinal  Mai  died.  The  ban  was  removed  three 
years  later  and  his  work  was  published,  but  then  it 
at  once  appeared  doubtful  whether  the  story  of  its 
offer  to  a  Berlin  publisher  was  true  or  not.  The  work 
was  found  to  have  been  done  in  such  a  careless  and 
incomplete  fashion,  and  its  author  was  known  to  be 
such  a  thorough  and  painstaking  scholar  that  the  re- 
pression of  the  earlier  volumes  printed  in  1838  was 
suspected  to  have  been  at  his  own  will,  and  many 
thought  that  the  work  would  never  have  been  given 
to  the  public,  had  the  Cardinal  lived.*     Indeed  the 

*  Scrivener,  Plain  Introduction,  p.  102. 


THE    VATICAN   MANUSCRIPT.  73 

very  papal  authorities,  by  whom  the  piiblication  was 
finally  effected,  were  so  conscious  of  its  defects  and 
piqued  by  the  failure  of  their  representative,  its  author, 
that  they  at  once  began  the  preparation  of  a  new  edition 
under  the  charge  of  Yercellone,  a  monk  of  St.  Barna- 
bas, which  was  completed  and  published  in  1859.  But 
this  revised  edition  was  still  very  insufficiently  done, 
and  gave  little  satisfaction  to  the  greater  scholars  of 
the  day. 

The  jealousy  with  which  this  precious  manuscript  is 
guarded  by  the  Roman  authorities  is  well  illustrated 
in  the  attempts  which  were  made  by  two  of  the  great- 
est Biblical  scholars  to  secure  the  privilege  of  studying 
and  copying  its  pages.  In  1845  Dr.  Tregelles  went  to 
Rome  with  the  sole  design  of  obtaining  access  to  the 
Codex,  if  possible.  He  sought  the  interference  of  Car- 
dinal Wiseman  before  leaving  England  and  received 
a  letter  by  which  it  was  hoped  his  task  would  be  made 
the  easier.  After  some  trouble  he  succeeded  at  last 
in  receiving  permission  to  see  the  volume.  Two  prel- 
ates, however,  were  detailed  to  watch  him,  and  they 
would  not  suffer  him  to  open  the  volume  without  pre- 
viously searching  his  pockets  and  taking  away  from 
him  ink  and  paper.  Any  j^rolonged  study  of  a  pas- 
sage was  sufficient  to  call  for  their  interference,  when 
the  book  would  be  hurriedly  taken  away  from  him,  but 
he  succeeded  in  making  some  notes  on  his  cuffs  and 
finger-nails !  Scrivener  relates  that  a  similar  attemj^t 
was  made  by  Dean  Alford  in  1861,  and  that  Cardinal 
Antonelli  gave  him  a  special  order  to  work  with  the 


74  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

manuscript  for  the  pur230se  of  verifying  j^assages ;  but 
the  librarian  considered  this  simply  a  jDermission  to 
look  at  the  book,  but  not  to  use  it.  But  perhaps 
Tischendorf  s  experience  was  stranger  than  either  of 
these.  In  1843,  two  years  previous  to  the  effort  made 
by  Tregelles,  he  went  to  Rome,  after  having  spent 
much  time  in  working  upon  manuscrij^ts  at  Basle  and 
in  other  cities.  For  more  than  a  year  he  was  a  well- 
known  student  of  the  ancient  treasures  in  the  libraries 
of  Italy,  at  Rome  and  Naples,  Turin,  Milan,  Florence, 
and  Venice.  He  silent  much  time  in  the  Vatican,  but 
his  requests  for  the  most  famous  of  all  the  manuscripts 
were  denied.  It  was  claimed  by  the  custodians  that 
the  i3ope  himself  had  forbidden  access  to  it.  Tischen- 
dorf describes  his  difficulties  in  the  most  interesting 
manner  in  a  communication  to  the  Leipziger  Zeitimg  * 
of  May  31,  1866.  He  says:  "I  had  been  commended 
in  the  most  earnest  manner  by  Guizot  to  the  French 
ambassador  Count  Latour  Maubourg;  I  was  also 
favored  with  many  letters  of  introduction  from  Prince 
John  (of  Saxony)  to  his  personal  friends  of  high  rank, 
and  in  addition,  with  a  very  flattering  note  from  the 
Archbishop  Affre  of  Paris,  directed  to  Gregory  XVI. 
The  latter,  after  a  prolonged  audience  granted  to  me, 
took  an  ardent  interest  in  my  undertakings ;  Cardinal 
Mai  received  me  with  kind  recognition ;  Cardinal  Mcz- 
zofanti  honored  me  with  some  Greek  verses  comj^osed 
in  my  praise :  but  notwithstanding  I  had  to  content 

*  Wissensohaftliche  Beilage,  pp.  189-192. 


THE    VATICAN    IklAXUSCRIPT.  75 

myself  with  six  hours  f  for  a  hasty  examination  of  the 
Codex  Vaticanus,  and  the  transcription  in  facsimile  of 
a  few  lines."  This  great  jealousy  was  doubtless  due 
in  part  to  the  fact  that  just  at  this  time  Cardinal  Mai 
was  most  deeply  engaged  uj^on  his  edition  of  the  same 
manuscript,  of  which  five  volumes  were  already  com- 
pleted. It  was  not  unnatural  that  fear  should  be  en- 
tertained, lest  the  Roman  edition  should  be  prejudiced 
by  the  publications  of  the  German  scholar,  if  more 
generous  access  to  the  original  were  allowed.  It  is 
evident  that  even  a  Tischendorf  could  do  but  little 
under  the  circumstances. 

Twenty-three  years  later  he  made  another  attempt 
with  better  success.  In  the  meantime  he  had  dis- 
covered the  Sinaitic  manuscript,  and  it  had  been  pnh- 
lished  in  sumptuous  form  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Czar,  and  a  copy  had  been  presented  to  the  Pope. 
The  latter  wrote  an  autograph  letter  to  Tischendorf, 
"  in  which  he  exjDressed  his  highest  appreciation,  yes, 
his  admiration  of  this  publication,"  and  added  such 
messages  of  regard  in  a  letter  written  by  his  maestro 
cli  camera^  that  the  scholar  deemed  the  opportunity 
too  favorable  to  be  lost,  and  at  once  asked  permission 
by  letter  to  publish  the  Codex  Yaticanus,  mentioning 
the  opinion  that  had  been  expressed  even  by  two 
Roman  Catholic  scholars,  that  this  work  should  be 
done  by  his  hands.  He  was  answered  so  doubtfully, 
that  he  resolved  to  wait  for  no  further  preliminaries, 

t  That  is,  the  regular  hours  for  work  in  the  Ubrary,  from  9 
to  12,  A.  M.,  for  two  days. 


7G  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

but  start  at  once  for  Rome.  He  arrived  there  on 
the  nineteenth  of  February,  1864.*  He  was  kindly- 
received  by  Cardinal  Antonelli,  and  on  the  twenty- 
fourth  day  of  February  was  bidden  to  an  audience 
with  the  Pope.  A  long  conversation  ensued,  and 
Tischendorf  preferred  his  request  to  be  allowed  to 
publish  the  manuscript  at  his  own  expense.  The 
Pope  said :  "  But  the  Codex  has  already  been  j^ub- 
lished  by  Cardinal  Mai."  "  Yes,"  answered  the  per- 
sistent and  acute  German,  "and  for  that  matter  the 
New  Testament  twice ;  but  these  editions  are  intended 
only  for  the  ordinary  use.  I,  on  the  contrary,  wish  to 
undertake  a  diplomatic  and  palaeographic  edition,  and 
indeed  for  the  very  purpose  of  showing  that  at  least 
in  all  the  principal  respects  the  edition  of  Mai  is 
correct,  which  is  not  universally  believed."  The  Pope 
retorted  :  "  But  it  must  be  believed  without  that ;  it 
is  a  matter  of  the  faith  (e  un'  affare  della  fede)." 
Tischendorf  urged  the  fact,  however,  that  Mai's  edi- 
tion did  not  have  the  full  confidence  of  scholars,  and 
that  a  publication  by  other  than  Roman  hands,  sup- 
porting Mai's  work  in  all  important  particulars,  would 
carry  greater  Aveight  than  any  issued  under  the  open 
patronage  of  His  Holiness.  For  a  time  the  result  of 
the  audience  remained  doubtful,  but  at  last  a  verbal 
order  from  Cardinal  Antonelli  was  received,  by  which 

*  This  date  is  given  in  his  own*  account  in  the  Leipziger 
Zeitung,  from  which  in  part,  this  outline  of  his  attempts  is  com- 
piled. The  later  date  1866  is  given  by  some  writers,  who  have 
told  the  story  of  his  life  and  labors. 


THE    VATICAN   JMAXUSCRIPT.  77 

permission  was  granted  to  thoroughly  insjDect  the 
manuscript,  only  under  the  pledge  that  such  a  publica- 
tion as  had  been  described  to  the  Pope  should  not  be 
kept  in  A'iew,  since  the  Pope  himself  proposed  to  issue 
such  a  work  through  Catholic  hands.*  The  regular 
working-time  of  the  library  was  extended  from  three 
to  six  hours  and  the  private  room  of  Cardinal  Pitra 
was  assigned  for  the  work.  Permission  was  also  given 
to  disregard  the  many  Roman  feast-days  and  vacations, 
which  reduce  the  work-days  of  the  Vatican  Library  to 
only  ninety-nine  in  the  year.  These  were  great  con- 
cessions. But  it  is  probable  that  they  suffered  material 
modification.  In  the  Prolegomena  to  his  N.  T.  Vati- 
can um,  issued  in  1867,  Tischendorf  says  that  he  was 
restricted  to  three  hours  each  day,  and  the  assertion  is 
repeated  in  another  place.  In  the  same  paragraph  of 
his  Prolegomena  (p.  viii.),  he  says :  "  I  took  the 
greatest  care  not  to  lose  even  the  smallest  portion  of 
these  three  hours.  But  I  undertook  to  examine  letter 
by  letter  the  whole  of  the   Scriptures   of  the  'New 

Testament  from  the  beginning But  while  I  was 

comparing  the  written  pages  with  the  edited  copies,  I 

*  This  was  the  edition  by  Vercellone  and  Cozza,  which  finally 
appeared  in  one  folio  volume  at  Korae  in  1868.  A  volume  of 
the  Old  Testament  followed  in  1869,  and  the  work  was  after- 
wards completed  in  three  more  volumes,  though  not  until  after 
the  death  of  Vercellone.  Tischendorf 's  type  for  the  Codex 
Sinaiticus  were  sent  to  Rome  for  this  edition,  in  return  for  the 
courtesies  he  had  received  at  Vercellone's  hands.  This  edition 
is  known  as  that  of  Vercellone  and  Cozza,  and  -copies  of  it  may 
be  seen  in  this  country. 


78  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

could  not  refrain  from  transcribing  many  whole  pages." 
These  pages  were  to  be  used,  he  claimed,  in  no  way 
prejudicial  to  the  agreement  under  which  he  had 
gained  access  to  the  document;  but  the  action  was 
nevertheless  observed  by  a  self-appointed  spy,  a  Prus- 
sian Jesuit,  who  reported  his  observations  to  the 
custodians  of  the  library  and  through  them  to  the 
Pope.  The  book  was  immediately  taken  away  from 
him.  He  had  succeeded,  however,  in  copying  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  first  three  Gospels.  "  I  seemed  as  if 
struck  by  a  thunderbolt,"  he  exclaims,  "  but  I  did  not 
give  way  to  despair."  It  was  shown  how  the  comple- 
tion of  his  work,  so  far  from  injuring  the  j^roposed 
Roman  edition,  would  be  of  essential  profit  to  it,  and 
even  the  editor  of  that  work  himself  favored  the 
cause  of  the  German  scholar.  Tischendorf  was  ena- 
bled, indeed,  to  render  valuable  assistance  to  Yer- 
cellone,  so  that  the  latter  said  to  him,  as  he  was  leaving 
Pome :  "  If  anything  is  accomplished  (in  the  new 
edition)  we  owe  it  to  you."  In  spite  of  all  objections, 
therefore,  the  precious  manuscript  was  granted  to  him 
for  a  few  hours  more.  "And  so  I  succeeded,"  he 
says,  in  the  article  in  the  Leipziger  Zeitung  already 
mentioned,  "  in  preparing  the  whole  New  Testament 
for  a  new,  reliable  edition,  so  as  to  attain  every  de- 
sired result  with  respect  both  to  the  pal£eographic 
peculiarities  of  the  manuscript,  and  especially  to  its 
most  surprising  relations  to  the  Codex  Sinaiticus." 
The  difticulty  of  the  work,  the  wonderful  dexterity 
with  which  it  was  accomplished,  and  the  joy  of  the 


THE   VATICAN   MANUSCRirT.  79 

scholar  in  his  success,  may  be  the  better  conceived, 
when  it  is  said  that  the  total  time  during  which  the 
manuscript  was  subject  to  his  inspection  was  only 
forty-two  hours !  The  collation  was  published,  in  the 
common  Greek  type,  in  1867.  The  score  of  pages 
which  were  transcribed,  however,  are  printed  as  in 
the  original  in  three  columns  on  a  page,  each  column 
containing  the  same  number  of  lines,  and  the  lines  the 
same  number  of  words,  as  in  the  ancient  text.  This 
publication,  achieved  thus  through  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties and  by  excessive  toil,  is  the  most  valuable  re- 
production of  the  text  as  it  appears  in  the  Vatican 
manuscript.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  Vatican 
text  is  generally  considered  superior  to  any  other  for 
purposes  of  criticism,  not  even  the  Sinaitic  Codex 
excepted  save  in  the  opinion  of  its  discoverer,  and  the 
value  of  Tischendorf 's  work  will  readily  be  seen  to  be 
of  the  highest,  it  was  indeed  one  of  the  three  greatest 
achievements  of  his  life,  the  discovery  and  publication 
of  J^,  the  deciphering  of  the  Ephraem  palimpsest,  and 
this  edition  of  the  chief  treasure  of  the  Vatican  —  a 
group  of  jDerformances  quite  sufficient  to  establish  the 
fame  of  the  great  scholar,  even  apart  from  the  many 
other  distinguished  services  rendered  by  him  to  the 
Christian  world. 

In  view  of  the  great  desirability  of  having  such  a 
manuscript  freely  accessible  to  scholars,  one  item  of 
its  history  is  of  special  interest.  In  the  year  1798 
Rome  came  into  possession  of  the  French,  who  estab- 
lished a  republic,  which,  however,  was  destined  to 


80  THE    STOilY    OF   THE    MANUSCnirTS. 

only  a  brief  existence.  But  although  in  1799  the 
allied  powers  restored  the  Pope,  in  1808  the  troops  of 
Napoleon  I.  again  entered  the  city,  and  the  Papal 
dominions  were  made  an  appendage  of  the  French 
empire.  The  conqueror  caused  large  numbers  of  the 
treasures  of  art  and  literature  accumulated  in  the 
city  to  be  transferred  to  Paris,  where  they  became  a 
part  of  the  imperial  collection.  The  precious  Codex 
B  was  not  overlooked,  and  for  several  years  it  was  in 
Paris,  and  during  that  time  might  have  been  studied 
with  comparative  leisure.  But  unfortunately  the  great 
scholars  had  not  yet  appeared,  who  were  afterwards 
the  most  competent  men  of  all  the  world  to  give  the 
manuscript  the  treatment  it  deserved.  It  lay  in  the 
Imperial  Library  uncared  for  except  by  a  critic,  J.  L. 
Hug,  whose  abilities  were  not  equal  to  the  demands  of 
the  case,  but  who  nevertheless  realized  its  value,  and 
printed  in  1810  a  paper  upon  the  "Antiquity  of  the 
Vatican  Manuscript."  This  essay  called  attention  to 
the  document,  but  in  1815  came  Waterloo,  Napoleon 
was  finally  dethroned,  and  the  treasures  he  had  col- 
lected again  suffered  change.  Codex  B  was  restored 
to  Rome.  This  very  year,  in  which  the  famous  docu- 
ment once  more  returned  to  the  Papal  library  with  all 
its  restrictions,  Tregelles  at  the  age  of  three  years  was 
only  just  learning  his  native  English  tongue,  and  the 
afterwards  renowned  Tischendorf  was  a  babe  of  two 
years,  the  delight  of  his  i^arents'  home  in  Legenfeld, 
Germany. 

As  an  example  of  the  text  of  this  manuscript,  the 


OTTohocGrroYdoMKA 
^yr  <^^  i^A  A.  >c^  n  jC  r€  TT 
ein^Tei;^6icMAeHTii« 
^y-rd  Y  K  A I  -ra>  n  €'T;pa> 
OTi  nfOAreifM-tceic 

TO  N  o'-l''  ec  36  K  AeoLx^ei 

C  A I  €<±>Y^o  HjiCn  6t6v 

AyXAcnrfOMOCKAif  K 
^.  CT;^CicfCA<dYA.eNl6y 
T   -A^eKf  noM€<po^oYN 


1 


CODEX   VATICANUS, 
Mark  XVI,  6-8. 


THE   VATICAN   MANUSCRIPT.  83 

plate  reproduces  a  portion  of  Mark  xvi.  6-8,  as  it  is 
given  by  Scrivener,  and  a  translation  in  similarly  ar- 
ranged English  letters  is  added  below,  as  it  appears 
upon  his  pages.  It  will  readily  be  seen  that  there 
would  be  ample  room  for  three  columns  of  text,  as  it 
appears  in  the  plate,  upon  a  quarto  page  ten  inches 
square,  the  size  of  the  famous  volume  in  red  morocco 
in  the  Vatican  Library. 

THEPLACEWHERETHEYLAID 

HIMBUTGOYOUKWAY 

TELLTOTHEDISCIPLES 

OFHIMANDTOPETER 

THATHEGOETHBEFOREYO  UTO 

THEGALILEETHEREHI 

MSHALLYESEEASHESA 

IDTOYOUANUOUTGQ 

INGTHEYFLEDFROMTHE 

SEPULCHREHELDFOR 

THEMTREMORANDAMAZ 

EMENTANDTONONENO 

THINGSPAKETHEYWEREAF 

RAIDFOR : 

AFTER 
MARK. 


84  THE    STOKY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    SINAITIC    MANUSCEI^T. 

The  mother  of  Constantine  the  Great,  the  first 
Christian  emperor  of  Rome,  Helena,  was  a  Christian, 
and  in  the  later  years  of  her  life  her  whole  desire 
was  to  give  to  the  world  a  knowledge  of  the  places 
that  had  been  rendered  sacred  by  the  presence  of  the 
Christ,  and  to  gain  for  herself  the  fame  and  rewards 
of  a  saint,  by  the  benefits  she  should  thus  confer 
upon  the  Church.  All  her  efforts  were  grouped  around 
an  attempt  to  find  the  cross  upon  which  the  Saviour 
had  died ;  but  there  was  no  j^lace  mentioned  in  sacred 
history,  however  remotely  connected  with  the  life  and 
work  of  Jesus,  that  did  not  find  an  interest  in  her 
mind,  and  to  which  her  singular  mingling  of  faith  and 
superstition  did  not  lead  her  steps.  She  was  nearly 
eighty  years  old,  when  she  claimed  to  have  attained 
her  greatest  desire,  and  the  flames  upon  the  watch- 
towers  flashed  the  news  from  Jerusalem  to  Constan- 
tinople, that  the  wood  of  the  true  cross  was  found. 
This  was  at  about  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Nice,  or 
a  little  later.  The  Invention  of  the  Cross  but  added 
ardor  to  her  enthusiasm.  She  founded  the  Church  of 
the  Nativity  at  Bethlehem,  and  that  of  the  Ascension 
on  the  top  of  Mt.  Olivet,  the  only  two  churches  which 


THE    SINAITIC   MANUSCRIPT.  85 

she  built,  according  to  Eusebius.  Many  spots  in  Pales- 
tine have  legends  in  memory  of  Helena,  Empress  and 
Saint,  but  not  only  within  the  sacred  limits  of  that  land 
did  her  devotion  exercise  itself,  but  far  away,  down 
into  the  deserts  of  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula,  it  led  her 
restlessly  onward,  till  she  believed  that  she  had  iden- 
tified many  of  the  places  spoken  of  in  the  Mosaic 
records.  Among  these  places  she  found  the  Well  of 
Jethro,  and  what  was  declared  to  be  the  very  spot, 
where  the  Lord  had  revealed  Himself  to  Moses  in  the 
burning  bush,  and  uj^on  this  spot  she  erected  a  tower. 
Nearly  two  hundred  years  later,  the  Emperor  Justinian 
built  a  church  in  this  place,  and  a  fortress  for  its  pro- 
tection. Possibly  the  former  was  built  apart  from  the 
latter  and  higher  up  on  the  mountain-side ;  but  there 
is  only  one  group  of  buildings  now  —  quite  as  much  a 
fortress  as  a  convent,  though  called  the  Convent  of  St. 
Catherine. 

The  reader  is  doubtless  familiar  with  Mticke's  pic- 
ture of  St.  Catherine  borne  by  four  angels  through 
the  air,  after  her  martyrdom.  It  is  the  representation 
of  the  legend,  that  when  this  niece  of  Constantine,  so 
eminent  for  holiness,  was  martyred  by  Maximin,  her 
body  was  miraculously  borne  from  Alexandria  to  Mt. 
Sinai,  where  it  was  placed  by  angelic  hands  in  a 
marble  sarcophagus,  and  a  monastery  built  over  the 
remains.  Probably  the  legend  is  only  a  poetical  version 
of  the  translation  of  the  relics  of  this  saint  from  the 
one  place  to  the  other  by  the  hermits,  who  had  long 
made  the  caves  of  Sinai  their  retreat;  but  however 
this  may  be,  the  legend,  so  like  the  western  story  of 


86  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

the  angelic  translation  of  the  House  of  Loretto,  gave 
the  name  to  the  celebrated  j^ile  of  buildings  erected 
by  Justinian  and  still  standing  ujDon  the  sjDot. 

Here  through  many  centuries  a  brotherhood  of 
monks  has  had  its  home.  Here  they  have  worshipped 
and  studied,  and  a  rich  library  has  grown  up  in  the 
course  of  the  hundreds  of  years,  in  which  their  seclu- 
sion has  enabled  them  to  pursue  the  paths  of  sacred 
learning.  Once  the  convent  was  the  resort  of  many 
pilgrims,  and  for  each  great  sect  a  special  chapel  was 
provided,  in  which  each  pilgrim  could  worship  accord- 
ing to  his  custom ;  and  j^robably  many  companies  of 
these  worshij^jiers,  from  Alexandria  or  Syria,  from 
Constantinople  or  Rome,  brought  offerings  to  the 
monks  of  manuscrij^ts  to  swell  the  treasures  of  the 
library.  Long  ago  these  pilgrimages  ceased :  long  ago 
the  zeal  of  the  brotherhood  for  the  acquisition  of 
sacred  learning  burned  dim :  for  many  years  and  with 
diminished  numbers,  they  have  lived  in  comparative 
indolence,  making  it  their  chief  employment  to  go 
through  with  the  routine  regulations  of  the  monastic 
worship,  to  which,  however,  they  have  added  the  en- 
tertainment of  travellers,  for  whom  nearly  a  hundred 
small,  but  neat,  chambers  are  provided.  It  is  remark- 
able, however,  that  though  the  present  degeneracy 
marks  a  former  period  of  greater  vigor,  and  though 
unquestionably  the  literary  treasures  of  the  monastery 
prove  that  learning  was  once  valued  there,  the  time 
has  never  been  when  this  brotherhood  has  given  any 
great  results  of  its  studies  to  the  world.  Dean  Stanley 
recalls  the  testimony  of  Burckhardt  and  Robinson  as 


THE    SINAITIC   MANUSCRIPT.  87 

to  the  deep  conviction  that  the  Arabs  have,  that  the 
monks  "  command  or  withhold  the  rain  from  heaven, 
on  which  the  whole  sustenance  of  the  Peninsula  de- 
pends," and  laments  that  the  power  given  them  by 
this  superstition  should  not  have  been  employed  by 
the  brotherhood  for  the  advantage  of  the  people  around 
them,  in  order  to  raise  them  by  Christianity  to  a  better 
condition  of  sj^iritual  and  bodily  life.*  "  Looking  from 
an  external  point  of  view,"  he  writes,  "  at  the  singular 
advantages  enjoyed  by  the  convent,  it  is  hard  to  recall 
another  institution,  with  such  ojDjDortunities  so  signally 
wasted.  It  is  a  colony  of  Christian  pastors  planted 
amongst  heathens,  who  wait  on  them  for  their  daily 
bread  and  for  their  rain  from  heaven,  and  hardly  a 
spark  of  civilization  or  of  Christianity,  so  far  as  his- 
tory records,  has  been  imparted  to  a  single  tribe  or 
family  in  that  wide  wilderness.  It  is  a  colony  of 
Greeks,  of  Europeans,  of  ecclesiastics,  in  one  of  the 
most  interesting  and  the  most  sacred  regions  of  the 
earth ;  and  hardly  a  fact,  from  the  time  of  their  first 
foundation  to  the  present  time,  has  been  contributed 
by  them  to  the  geography,  the  geology,  or  the  history 
of  a  country,  which  in  all  its  aspects  has  been  sub- 
mitted to  their  investigation  for  thirteen  centuries." 
The  number  of  the  monks  has  varied  from  time  to 
time  in  the  later  years,  and  is  given  by  various  trav- 
ellers as  twenty-three,  twenty,  and  twenty-six.  With 
these  facts  borne  in  mind,  the  singular  apathy  in  the 
convent  with  regard  to  some  of  its  chief  treasures 

*  Burckhardt,  p.  667;  Robinson,  I.,  132;  Stanley,  Sinai  and 
Palestine,  p.  65. 


88  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

will  be  the  better  understood.  It  was  here  that  the 
great  Codex  ^J  lay  buried  for  no  one  can  tell  how  many 
years,  and  where  it  was  only  saved  from  destruction 
by  the  providential  arrival  of  the  EurojDean  scholar, 
of  whom  much  has  been  written  already  in  these 
pages. 

In  the  course  of  his  earlier  labors  upon  the  Greek 
text  of  the  New  Testament,  it  occurred  to  Tischen- 
dorf  that  there  must  be  a  large  store  of  precious  man- 
uscripts "  hidden  in  dust  and  darkness  "  in  the  recesses 
of  Greek  and  Coptic,  Syrian  and  Armenian  monaste- 
ries, and  that  many  documents  might  be  found  with 
the  writings  of  the  earlier  centuries,  which  could  pos- 
sibly be  transferred  to  Europe,  or  at  least  be  copied 
and  made  a  valuable  j^art  of  Christian  literature.  As 
already  narrated  in  the  chapter  upon  the  Vatican 
manuscript,  these  convictions  were  sufficient  to  start 
the  scholar  upon  journeys  in  the  year  1843,  which  were 
destined  to  continue  with  only  brief  intervals  during 
almost  the  entire  remainder  of  his  life.  It  was  in  1843, 
it  will  be  remembered,  that  his  first  attempts  to  gain 
access  to  the  Vatican  Codex  were  made.  In  March,* 
1844,  he  embarked  at  Leghorn  for  Egypt  and  Syria, 
arriving  after  a  delay  at  Malta  on  the  fourth  of  April 
at  Alexandria,  whence  he  proceeded  to  Cairo.  After 
examining  libraries  in  that  city  and  looking  at  the  Pyr- 
amids and  the  Sphinx,  he  pursued  his  way  to  four 
Coptic  monasteries  in  the   Libyan   desert,  where  he 

*  In  his  "When  were  our  Gospels  written?"  Tischendorf 
gives  the  date  of  his  departure  as  April,  but  it  is  elsewhere  and, 
doubtless,  more  accurately  given  as  in  the  text. 


THE    SINAITIC   MANUSCRIPT.  89 

found  comparatively  little  to  reward  his  efforts.  Re- 
turning to  Cairo  he  started  on  May  12th  for  Suez  and 
the  Sinaitic  Peninsula.  His  description  of  these  jour- 
neys is  most  fascinating,  as  it  is  given  in  his  book  en- 
titled "  Reise  in  den  Orient,"  which  has  passed  through 
several  editions  in  Germany  and  been  translated  into 
English. 

An  abridgment  of  the  account  of  his  arrival  at  the 
convent  on  the  24th  of  May  may  well  be  given.*  "  I 
did  not  see  the  convent  until  we  were  come  into  its 
immediate  proximity.  It  lies  in  a  long  and  narrow  vale 
between  the  mountain  of  Saint  Epistemius  or  the  Jebel 
ed  Deir,  and  Horeb ;  but  it  comes  into  view  most 
beautifully,  with  its  fine  garden  of  cypress,  pomegran- 
ate, and  orange  trees  giving  a  friendly  greeting  over 
the  gray  stone  walls.  The  convent  itself,  with  its  walls 
towering  to  the  height  of  forty  feet,  looks  like  a  small 
fortress,  and  the  want  of  any  entrance,  that  can  prop- 
erly be  called  a  door,  strengthens  the  impression.  The 
only  entrance  is  thirty  feet  high,  to  which  the  visitor 
is  pulled  up  by  a  rope.  A  crowd  of  Bedouins  were 
already  gathered  under  this  door,  and  they  heralded 
my  arrival  by  loud  cries  and  the  discharge  of  their 
fire-arms.  But  before  I  could  enter  upon  my  rope- 
journey  upwards,  I  was  asked  for  my  credentials.  I 
])resented  the  two  letters  from  Suez,  which  were  im- 
mediately drawn  up  into  the  convent."  These  testi- 
monials were  not  readily  accepted,  however,  for  the 
prior  was  aware  that  Tischendorf  had  just  i)aid  a  long 
visit  to  the  mother-convent  in  Cairo,  and  he  naturally 
♦  Reise  in  den  Orient  (Leipzig,  1846,)  I,  216  seq. 


90  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

thought  that  if  the  traveller  were  perfectly  trust- 
worthy he  would  have  received  a  letter  of  introduction 
from  the  superior  there.  Niebuhr  had  been  denied 
admittance  to  St.  Catherine's  uj^on  such  grounds,  and 
Tischendorf  was  in  danger  of  similar  treatment.  He 
had  in  fact  received  a  letter  at  Cairo,  but  he  had  ex- 
amined it  with  characteristic  care  and  suspected  that 
the  vellum  on  which  it  was  written  was  of  critical 
value,  and  he  had  therefore  designedly  left  it  in  his 
desk.  He  answered  the  prior  that  he  had  been  given 
an  introduction,  which  he  had  unfortunately  left  be- 
hind him  in  Cairo,  and,  without  giving  the  real  reason, 
sought  to  explain  the  oversight.  It  was  evident  that 
his  effort  was  not  wholly  satisfactory,  but  they  made 
no  further  objections  to  hoisting  him  up  by  the  roj^e 
to  the  lofty  door  of  their  retreat. 

Tischendorf  was  allowed  free  access  to  the  library, 
which  was  rich  in  manuscripts.  As  he  examined  the 
volumes  upon  the  shelves,  his  eye  fell  upon  a  large 
basket  full  of  old  parchments  standing  upon  the  floor, 
apparently  counted  of  no  value,  and  waiting  only  for 
use  as  kindlings.  Upon  inquiry  he  found  that  two 
basketfuls  of  similar  fragments  had  already  been  used 
for  this  purpose.  Upon  turning  over  the  mouldered 
pieces,  he  found,  to  his  great  surprise,  a  number  of 
leaves  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Greek,  which  bore 
every  evidence  of  being  more  ancient  than  any  he  had 
ever  seen.  Ha  was  permitted  to  take  a  small  portion 
of  this  manuscript,  consisting  of  forty-three  leaves,  but 
no  persuasions  could  induce  the  monks  to  part  with 
the  remainder,  which  had  suddenly  grown  valuable  in 


THE    SINAITIO   MANUSCRIPT.  91 

their  eyes  now  that  the  learned  stranger  was  so  anx- 
ious to  possess  them.  The  leaves  secured  were  parts 
of  1  Chronicles  and  2  Esdras,  all  of  Nehemiah  and 
Esther,  and  parts  of  Tobit,  Jeremiah,  and  Lamenta- 
tions, to  which  must  be  added  a  coj^y  that  the  discov- 
erer was  enabled  to  make  of  a  single  page  containing 
text  from  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.  His  satisfaction  had 
been  too  plainly  expressed.  Nothing  more  could  be 
gained  from  the  brotherhood,  at  least  at  this  visit,  and 
so  Tischendorf  took  his  departure,  enjoining  upon  the 
monks  to  take  good  care  of  the  remnant,  and  of  any 
such  fragments  as  might  be  found.  The  precious 
leaves  in  his  possession  were  a  part  of  the  great  Codex 
}>J,  which  was  yet  to  be  unknown  for  many  years,  and 
were  deposited  in  the  University  Library,  at  Leipzig, 
with  all  the  other  documents  collected  in  this  journey. 
The  discoverer  gave  the  name  Codex  Friderico-Augus- 
tanus  to  these  Sinaitic  fragments,  in  acknowledgment 
of  the  patronage  of  the  Saxon  king,  under  which  they 
were  found. 

Many  years  followed,  filled  with  work  of  the  most 
lasting  value  to  students  of  the  Bible.  But  through 
all  the  pressure  of  his  studies  during  this  time  Tischen- 
dorf never  forgot  the  treasure  he  had  left  behind  him 
at  Sinai,  nor  relinquished  the  hope  of  some  day  getting 
possession  of  it.  He  made  attempts  through  an  influ- 
ential friend,  the  physician  to  the  viceroy  of  Egypt, 
to  secure  the  manuscript,  but  the  only  result  was 
stated  in  a  letter  in  return :  "  The  monks  of  the  con- 
vent have  learned  the  value  of  these  sheets  of  parch- 
ment since  your  departure,  and  will  not  part  with 


92  THE    STORY    OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

them  at  any  i^rice."  He  determined,  therefore, ,  to 
return  to  the  East  in  order  to  copy  the  manuscript, 
which  he  knew  to  be  of  the  greatest  value.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1853,  he  stood  once  more  beneath  the  walls  of  the 
convent,  and  was  welcomed  by  the  brotherhood.  But 
not  a  trace  of  the  coveted  parchments  could  be  found. 
Every  inquiry  failed,  and  he  was  obliged  to  return  to 
Euroj^e,  contenting  himself  with  other  documents  of 
importance  which  he  had  picked  uj)  in  many  places  by 
the  way. 

But  not  even  now  could  the  enthusiastic  scholar  rest. 
In  the  midst  of  the  work  of  preparing  a  multitude  of 
publications  he  was  haunted  by  the  thought  that  there 
might  yet  be  some  way  of  obtaining  the  rest  of  that 
ancient  copy  of  the  Old  Testament  that  he  had  seen 
once  in  the  convent  of  St.  Catherine.  At  last,  in  the 
autumn  of  1856,  he  applied  to  the  Russian  government 
for  a  commission  to  make  an  Eastern  journey  in  the  in- 
terests of  Biblical  science,  thinking  thereby  to  secure 
the  advantages  of  the  deep  reverence  felt  in  all  the  East- 
ern monasteries  for  the  Russian  emperor,  who  is  consid- 
ered the  head  of  the  Eastern  church.  After  many 
delays  the  imperial  approval  was  gained,  the  necessary 
funds  were  granted,  and  in  January,  1859,  Tischendorf 
started  the  third  time  for  the  convent  at  Sinai.  During 
tlie  whole  interval  since  his  first  journey,  and  notwith- 
standing the  interest  excited  by  the  Codex  Friderico- 
Augustanus,  he  had  steadfastly  kept  the  secret  of  the 
place  in  which  he  liad  found  it,  having  imparted  it 
only  to  the  two  or  three  i:)ersons  who  could  have  aided 
him  in  his  attempts  to  secure  the  remainder  of  the 


THE    SINAITIC   MANUSCRIPT.  93 

document.  But  his  second  fruitless  journey  had  filled 
him  with  fears,  either  that  the  monks  had  come  to 
value  the  manuscript  so  highly  as  to  have  hidden  it 
forever  from  the  sight  of  strangers,  or  else  that  they 
had  already  j^arted  with  it  for  some  immense  sum,  or  at 
at  the  command  of  some  ecclesiastical  superior.  He 
arrived  in  Alexandria  on  the  sixteenth  of  January.  In 
his  first  journey  he  had  gone  by  camel  from  Alexandria 
to  Suez  in  five  days,  now  he  went  the  same  distance  in 
about  five  hours  by  rail.  But  now,  as  before,  the  rest 
of  the  way  must  be  traversed  with  camels,  and  on  the 
thirty-first  of  January,  1859,  he  once  more  entered  the 
convent.  He  was  welcomed  most  heartily.  The  fami- 
liar rooms  containing  the  library  were  thrown  open  to 
him ;  and  the  custodian  of  the  books,  Cyril  of  Athos, 
showed  him  every  courtesy.  Many  valuable  manu- 
scripts were  placed  in  his  hands,  liturgies  and  lection- 
aries  and  copies  of  Scriptures,  but  nowhere  was  the 
one  volume  he  desired;  and  after  a  stay  of  a  few 
days  he  gave  up  all  hope  of  success.  He  told  his 
Bedouins  on  the  fourth  of  February  to  be  ready  to 
start  for  Cairo  on  the  seventh,  and  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  same  day  he  took  a  walk  with  the  steward  of 
the  convent,  returning  about  sunset.  They  had  talked 
of  their  studies,  and  upon  their  return  the  steward 
invited  him  to  take  supper  with  him  in  his  own  cell. 
Continuing  the  conversation,  the  steward  said :  "  I, 
too,  have  been  reading  the  Septuagint,"  and  as  he 
spoke  he  brought  a  bulky  volume  wrapped  in  a  red 
cloth  from  the  corner  of  the  room  and  laid  it  in  Tisch- 
endorf's    hands.      One   glance  was    suflicient.      The 


94  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS, 

scholar  knew  that  the  wish  of  years  was  attained. 
But  how  much  more  than  had  been  comprised  in  that 
wish  was  now  found  he  hardly  dared  to  believe,  as  his 
hands  turned  the  precious  leaves.  Here  were,  indeed, 
the  very  fragments  which  he  had  taken  from  the  waste- 
basket  fifteen  years  before,  but  also,  to  his  greatest 
surprise  and  joy,  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
whole  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas, 
and  a  part  of  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  —  books  which 
in  some  localities  had  once  been  considered  canonical, 
and  had  therefore  been  included  in  this  volume  of  the 
New  Testament. 

That  night  determined  the  principal  labors  of  Tisch- 
endorfs  life  for  the  next  fourteen  years.  Concealing 
his  joy  as  best  he  could,  he  asked  carelessly  if  he 
might  take  the  volume  to  his  own  room  to  examine  it 
a  little  more  leisurely.  Once  there,  he  fairly  danced 
for  joy.  "I  knew,"  he  says,*  "that  I  held  in  my 
hand  the  most  precious  Biblical  treasure  in  existence 
—  a  document  whose  age  and  importance  exceeded 
that  of  all  the  manuscripts  I  had  ever  examined  during 
twenty  years'  study  of  the  subject.  I  cannot  now, 
I  confess,  recall  all  the  emotions  which  I  felt  in  that 
exciting  moment,  with  such  a  diamond  in  my  pos- 
session." "  It  seemed  a  wickedness  to  slee]),"  he  says 
elsewhere.  All  through  that  night  in  the  cold  cell 
and  by  the  dim  light  of  a  candle,  he  toiled  upon  a 
transcription  of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  the  original 

*  "  When  were  our  Gospels  written?  "  Translation  published 
by  the  Religious  Tract  Society  of  London,  and  reprinted  by  the 
American  Tract  Society. 


THE    SINAITIC   MANUSCRIPT.  95 

Greek  of  which  had  never  been  discovered  before,  and 
which  was  known  only  through  a  Latin  translation. 

Early  the  next  morning  Tischendorf  ap23lied  to  the 
steward  for  permission  to  take  the  manuscript  to 
Cairo  that  it  might  be  copied  in  full.  But  it  exceeded 
the  steward's  authority  to  grant  permission.  Unfor- 
tunately the  prior  had  left  two  days  previous  for 
Cairo,  intending  to  proceed  to  Constantinople  to  take 
part  in  the  election  of  a  new  archbishop.  Tischendorf 
at  once  set  out  to  catch  him.  He  left  the  monastery 
on  the  seventh,  as  had  been  previously  arranged.  The 
Russian  flag  was  hoisted,  and  a  salute  was  fired  as  he 
rode  away.  He  found  the  prior  in  Cairo,  who  readily 
acceded  to  the  proposal,  and  dispatched  a  Bedouin 
upon  a  swift  dromedary  to  bring  the  manuscript  at 
once  to  the  city,  and  nine  days  later  the  scholar  had 
the  precious  book  once  more  before  him.  It  was 
agreed  that  Tischendorf  should  be  allowed  sets  of 
eight  leaves  at  a  time,  these  quaternions,  as  they  were 
called,  making  up  the  separate  parts  of  the  manuscript, 
in  a  manner  similar  to  the  folds  of  a  modern  book, 
which  are  called  signatures  by  the  printers.  And  thus 
the  copy  was  obtained,  two  German  friends  assist- 
ing in  the  task  of  transcribing  the  hundred  and  ten 
thousand  lines,  and  Tischendorf  revising  and  correcting 
the  sheets  with  a  constant  study  of  the  original. 

But,  meanwhile,  the  desire  was  growing  to  possess 
the  original  itself,  or  to  secure  it  for  such  future  study 
as  could  only  be  accomplished  through  the  passage  of 
years.  He  ventured  to  suggest  that  it  should  be  pre- 
sented by  the  monastery  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia  as 


96  THE    STORY    OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

the  head  of  the  Greek  Church.  The  prior  received 
the  proposal  with  favor,  but  was  unable  to  grant  the 
request  without  permission  from  the  archbishop,  whose 
election  had  just  been  accomplished.  He  had  not  been 
consecrated,  however,  and  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem 
raised  such  a  strong  opposition  to  him  that  the  cere- 
mony was  long  delayed.  At  last  Tischendorf  himself 
was  requested  to  interfere  in  the  ecclesiastical  dispute, 
and  use  his  influence  in  favor  of  the  party  of  his 
friends  of  the  monastery.  He  did  so,  and  when  finally 
the  victory  was  gained,  he  carried  the  news  of  their 
success  to  Cairo,  and  again  preferred  his  request,  now 
emphasized  by  the  support  of  the  Russian  ambassador 
to  Turkey.  The  next  day  "  I  received  from  them,"  he 
says,  "  under  the  form  of  a  loan,  the  Sinaitic  Bible,  to 
carry  it  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  there  to  have  it  copied 
as  accurately  as  possible."  This  was  the  attainment 
of  his  highest  wishes,  and  on  the  nineteenth  of  No- 
vember in  the  same  year  he  presented  the  priceless 
volume,  with  many  other  treasures,  to  the  Emperor 
Alexander  II. 

Now  followed  the  labor  of  preparing  an  edition  of 
the  codex  in  facsimile.  The  work  was  accomplished 
in  1862,  in  four  folio  volumes,*  and  by  the  munificence 
of  the  emperor,  copies  were  sent  to  the  great  insti- 
tutions and  libraries  throughout  the  world.  Honors 
l^oured  in  upon  the  great  scholar,  whose  sagacity  and 
perseverance  had  accomplished  the  result,  and  whose 
life-work  had  now  achieved  its  greatest  triumph. 

*  Several  libraries  in  this  country  possess  copies  of  this  Codex, 
as  well  as  of  Vercellone's  facsimile  of  the  Vatican  manuscript. 


THE    SINAITIC   MANUSCEIPT.  97 

One  unfortunate  circumstance,  however,  slioulcT  be 
recorded  in  candor.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Tischendorfs  own  words  quoted  above  are:  "I  re- 
ceived the  Sinaitic  Bible  under  the  form  of  a  loan  to 
carry  it  to  St.  Petersburg."  The  loan  has  never  been 
cancelled  by  the  return  of  the  volume.  Whether  the 
eminent  discoverer  did  not  fully  understand  that  the 
loan  was  real,  and  not  merely  formal,  or  whether 
the  Imperial  government  claims  the  authority  to  dis- 
pose of  the  manuscript,  can  hardly  be  determined 
perhaps  under  the  present  data  for  our  knowledge. 
Certain  it  is,  however,  that  the  monks  at  Sinai  feel 
deeply  injured  that  their  precious  manuscript  seems 
lost  to  them  forever.  It  is  true  the  Russian  govern- 
ment made  them  the  offer  of  liberal  compensation, 
which  they  refused,  as  undoubtedly  they  had  a  right 
to  do.  But  when  they  declined  to  part  thus  with 
their  rightly  considered  priceless  book,  no  offer  of  its 
return  was  made.  The  visitor*  to-day  at  the  Convent 
of  St.  Catherine  finds  the  brotherhood  sorely  grieved 
over  what  they  deem  a  decided  breach  of  faith. 

The  Sinaitic  Codex,  K  (Aleph),  has  three  hundred 
and  forty-six  and  a  half  leaves,  thirteen  and  a  half 
inches  wide  by  nearly  fifteen  inches  long.  Of  these, 
one  hundred  and  ninety-nine  leaves  contain  portions  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  it  will  be  remembered  that  the 
parts  previously  discovered  and  deposited  at  Leipzig 
were  also  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  poetical  portions 
are  written  stichometrically  in  two  columns  upon  a 
page,  but  the  other  pages  have  four  columns.     It  is  of 

*  Compare  Schaff's  "Through  Bible  Lands." 


98  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

singular  interest  that  two  small  fragments  of  manu- 
script, one  a  part  of  a  single  leaf  discovered  by  Tiscli- 
endorf  in  1853,  and  the  other  portions  of  two  leaves 
found  by  Archbishop  Porfiri  in  the  binding  of  other 
books,  have  been  identified  as  belonging  to  this  codex, 
adding  thus  a  few  verses  to  the  Old  Testament.  The 
New  Testament  contains,  as  already  stated,  the  canon- 
ical books,  with  the  addition  of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas 
and  a  iDart  of  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas.  It  is  remarked 
that  between  these  two  books  six  leaves  seem  to  have 
fallen  out,  upon  which  possibly  some  apocryphal  text 
may  have  been  written.*  The  whole  number  of  leaves 
extant  is  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  and  a  half. 
The  text  is  written  uj^on  very  fine  parchment,  — 
Tischendorf  says  the  skins  of  young  antelopes,  — 
without  accents  or  breathings,  with  no  separation 
of  words  and  with  no  large  initials.  The  Ammonian 
sections  and  Eusebian  canons  are  marked  in  the  mar- 
gins. Tischendorf  believes  that  he  has  detected  the 
corrections  of  at  least  ten  different  revisers,  extending 
over  a  period  ending  in  the  twelfth  century.  The  age 
of  the  manuscript  is  undoubtedly  that  of  the  fourth 
century.  It  ranks  with  the  Vatican  Codex  for  pur- 
poses of  textual  criticism,  while  naturally  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  New  Testament  gives  it  an  especial 
value.  Altogether  the  discovery  and  collation  of  this 
ancient  volume  is  to  be  considered  as  the  greatest  con- 
tribution to  Biblical  criticism  of  modern  times,  and  the 
aid  which  it  will  always  render  to  the  determination 
and  defense  of  Christian  truth  is  beyond  value. 
*  Bleek,  Einleitung,  p.  707. 


THE    SINAITIC   MANUSCRIPT.  99 

The  account  of  this  manuscript  should  not  close 
without  the  mention  of  certain  hostilities  which  it  has 
suffered,  adding  much  to  the  labors  of  its  discoverer 
and  editor,  who  was  obliged  thus  to  become  also  its 
defender.  The  strangest  of  these  attacks  came  from 
the  impostor  previously  referred  to  in  these  pages  (55 
and  56),  Constantine  Simonides.  Tischendorf  had  de- 
feated his  schemes  in  1856,  and  now,  with  peculiar 
craft,  he  sought  to  take  his  revenge.  Falling  back 
upon  his  now  well-known  skill  in  preparing  forgeries, 
he  claimed  at  once  upon  the  appearance  of  the  fac- 
similes of  the  Sinaitic  Codex,  that  he  had  icritten  the 
whole  document  himself!  He  said  that  he  had  been 
employed  by  his  uncle,  who  was  at  the  head  of  a 
monastery  on  Mount  Athos,  to  make  in  manuscript  a 
copy  of  the  complete  Bible,  to  be  presented  to  the 
Russian  Emperor  Nicholas.  He  claimed  that  it  was 
the  intention  to  add  the  writings  of  all  the  Apostolic 
Fathers  to  the  volume,  but  while  engaged  upon  the 
Shepherd  of  Hermas  his  uncle  died,  and  the  work  was 
stopped.  The  volume  was  presented  by  him  later  to 
Constantius,  formerly  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  and 
Archbishop  of  Sinai,  who  recognized  the  favor  by 
sending  to  Simonides  twenty-five  thousand  piastres, 
or  not  far  from  $1,200.  The  Patriarch  presented  the 
book  to  the  Convent  of  St.  Catherine,  where  Simonides 
had  seen  it  twice,  ii^  1844  and  1852.  Such  was  the 
wonderful  story,  believed  by  many,  recognized  by  the 
more  learned  as  the  boldest  of  all  Simonides's  lies, 
and  calling  at  once  for  refutation.  Naturally,  the 
defeat  of  such  imj^osture  was  easy.     The  monks  at 


100  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

Sinai  had  never  seen  Simonides,  and  asserted  that  the 
manuscript  had  been  there  from  the  earliest  times. 
Moreover,  according  to  the  authority  of  Simonides  him- 
self, he  could  have  been  only  a  youth  of  fifteen  in  1839, 
the  date  he  assigned  to  the  beginning  of  his  task; 
besides  which,  it  was  pointed  out  that,  in  order  to 
have  finished  the  work  at  the  time  named,  "  he  must 
have  written  at  least  twenty  thousand  large  and  sep- 
arate uncial  letters  every  day  ! "  *  Simonides  admitted 
the  fact,  and  offered  to  do  the  work  again  for  the  price 
of  150,000 !  Altogether  his  story  was  too  great  to  be 
believed,  and  such  expositions  of  its  improbability 
were  readily  received.  The  other  attacks  were  of  a 
different  character  and  somewhat  harder  to  refute. 
From  Russian  sources  came  the  charge  that  the  newly 
discovered  work  was  guilty  of  heresy  in  some  of  its 
parts,  and  from  England  came  doubts  of  a  serious 
character,  though  from  a  writer  who  preferred  to 
remain  anonymous.  Tischendorf  replied  with  sharp 
pamphlets  in  1863,  the  first  entitled  "The  Assaults 
upon  the  Sinai-Bible,"  and  the  second  "  The  Weapons 
of  Darkness  against  the  Sinai-Bible,"  establishing  be- 
yond controversy  the  genuineness  and  value  of  the 
manuscript. 

So  did  this  priceless  treasure  come  forth  from  the 
obscurity  of  ages  into  the  light  of  Christian  scholarship, 
henceforth  to  be  regarded  by  Christians  as  sharing 
with  the  Vatican  Manuscript  the  first  place  in  the 
ranks  of  all  the  witnesses  to  the  original  text  of  the 
Scriptures. 

*  Scrivener,  Six  Lectures,  p.  38. 


THE    PALIMPSESTS.  101 


CHAPTER  YII. 

THE    PALIMPSESTS. 

I:n"  the  Greek  department  of  the  National  Library  at 
Paris  is  an  ancient  document  marked  No.  9,  and  it  has 
become  famous  as  Codex  C,  or  the  Codex  of  Ephraem 
the  Syrian.  In  the  year  1535  a  scholar  died  in  Rome 
named  Andreas  Johannes  Lascaris,  who  had  devoted 
much  toil  to  the  collection  of  valuable  manuscripts  in 
the  East.  Among  his  discoveries  was  this  old  volume, 
containing  sermons  and  other  writings  by  Ephraem  of 
Syria.  From  the  collection  of  this  John  Lascar,  the 
book  passed  into  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Nicola  Ridolfi 
of  Florence,  and  upon  the  death  of  the  latter  his  whole 
library  was  bought  by  Pietro  Strozzi.  From  him  the 
manuscript  came  into  the  j^ossession  of  the  Medicis ; 
and  Catherine  de  Medici,  when  she  left  Italy  for 
France,  carried  with  her  these  sermons  of  Ephraem, 
as  one  of  the  books  from  which  to  feed  her  spiritual 
life.  Probably  from  her  hands  it  came  into  the  library, 
where  it  now  remains.  For  a  long  time  there  was  no 
suspicion  that  the  pages  contained  any  treasure  greater 
than  the  works  of  the  Syrian  preacher  and  saint ;  I5ut 
at  last,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a 
careful  reader,  named  Peter  Allix,  discerned  traces  of 
another  text  beneath  that  of  Ephraem.    It  was  very 


102  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

faint,  in  many  places  wholly  indistinguishable,  and  of 
course,  where  it  could  be  seen  it  was  much  obscured 
by  the  later  writing ;  but  close  investigation  proved  it 
to  be  really  a  separate  text,  and  the  manuscript  was 
fully  recognized  as  a  palimpsest. 

The  attention  of  scholars  was  at  once  directed  to 
the  work  of  deciphering  the  original  writing,  which 
Allix  had  found  to  be  portions  of  the  Scripture.  The 
difficulty  attending  the  task  was  great,  and  scholar- 
ship) had  not  yet  advanced  to  the  degree  of  skill  neces- 
sary for  the  work.  Several  passages  were  extracted, 
and  applied  to  the  reprint  of  Mill's  Greek  Testament, 
which  appeared  in  1710 ;  and  this  was  the  first  use  of 
the  manuscript  in  the  correction  of  the  text  of  Scrip- 
ture. The  critic  Wetstein  bestowed  much  labor  upon 
the  elucidation  of  the  older  writing  and  upon  confer- 
ence with  the  great  English  scholar,  Bentley,  was 
sent  by  him  to  Paris  for  the  express  purpose  of  study- 
ing the  manuscript  with  reference  to  its  use  in  the 
edition  of  the  New  Testament  which  Bentley  proposed 
to  publish.  This  collation  by  Wetstein,  a  coj^y  of 
which  was  sent  to  Bentley  according  to  the  agree- 
ment, while  the  collator  preserved  a  coj^y  for  himself, 
was  of  use  thirty-five  years  afterward,  when  Wetstein 
himself  published  a  Greek  Testament.  With  all  his 
success,  however,  this  early  investigator  found  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  reading  the  larger  part  of  what 
he  secured  of  the  original,  and  in  a  multitude  of  places 
it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  discern  the  writing.  A 
long  interval  followed  in  which  no  attempt  was  made 
to  overcome  these  immense  obstacles.     But  in  1834 


THE   PALIMPSESTS.  103 

the  custodian  of  the  manuscripts  in  the  Royal  Library- 
was  induced  to  allow  a  chemical  infusion  to  be  applied, 
in  the  hope  that  the  ancient  characters  might  be  more 
fully  brought  out.  This  was  done,  and  what  was 
known  as  the  Giobertine  tincture  was  used  upon  about 
one  hundred  leaves  of  the  book.  The  process  was 
partially  successful,  the  letters  appeared  indeed  with 
more  distinctness,  but  the  pages  were  so  spotted  and 
stained  that  many  have  doubted  whether  the  experi- 
ment should  have  been  made.  The  critic  Fleck  was 
enabled  to  collate  many  pages  hitherto  undecipherable, 
but  his  work,  even  after  the  chemical  preparation  of 
the  manuscript,  was  still  very  incomplete. 

Lachmann,  in  1830,  wrote  that,  if  any  Parisian 
scholar  had  the  courage  for  the  task,  he  could  secure 
immortal  fame  by  publishing  the  text  of  this  codex. 
Capperonier,  a  former  head  of  the  library,  had  said 
that  no  mortal  could  read  the  words  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament written  beneath  the  text  of  Ephraem.  In  1840, 
Tischendorf  went  to  Paris  and  apj^lied  himself  to  the 
work.  From  December  of  that  year  until  September 
of  1841,  he  was  closely  engaged  in  deciphering  the  hid- 
den text  and  making  it  ready  for  publication.  Tre~ 
gelles's  description  *  of  his  success  in  the  edition,  which 
was  published  in  1843,  is  as  follows:  "The  printed 
edition  appeared  in  1842  [?],  and  then  this  manuscript 

*  In  Home's  Introduction,  IV.  167.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
date  in  the  text  differs  from  that  of  the  quotation.  The  latter  is 
undoubtedly  an  oversight,  but  it  is  preserved  in  the  quotation  in 
fidelity  to  the  great  editor's  text,  though  the  author  of  the  pres- 
ent work  has  ventured  to  indicate  in  brackets  its  questionable 
character. 


104  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

might  be  said  to  be  for  the  first  time  available  for 
critical  pm-poses.  Tischendorf s  edition  follows  the 
manuscript  page  for  page  and  line  for  line ;  it  is 
printed  in  caj^ital  letters,  although  not  in  any  way  imi- 
tating the  form  of  those  in  the  manuscript  itself.  One 
page  in  facsimile  is  subjoined  to  the  volume;  it  ex- 
hibits very  clearly  the  appearance  of  the  older  and  the 
later  writing  as  they  now  are ;  even  the  color  is  suc- 
cessfully imitated  ;  the  many  stains  on  the  vellum  are 
alone  omitted.  The  only  reason  that  any  could  wish 
that  they  had  been  preserved  in  the  facsimile  is  that 
then  the  pains  which  Tischendorf  took  would  be  more 
fully  appreciated."  The  great  scholar  had  indeed 
been  most  successful  in  overcoming  the  prodigious  dif- 
ficulties of  his  task.  He  noted  even  the  work  of  re- 
visers of  the  manuscript,  declaring  that  no  less  than 
four  hands  had  been  employed  upon  the  ancient  text, 
and  indicating  the  very  few  places  in  which  the  fourth 
writer  had  added  his  corrections.  Had  Tischendorf 
done  no  other  work,  had  he  contributed  nothing  else 
to  the  science  to  which  he  devoted  his  life,  his  mar- 
vellous success  here  would  have  entitled  him  to  rev- 
erential fame. 

The  palimpsest  of  Ephraem  was  unquestionably  a 
document  of  date  as  early  as  the  fifth  century.  The 
erasure  of  the  older  writing  and  the  formation  of  the 
new  volume  took  j^lace  in  the  twelfth  century.  The 
leaves  were  taken  promiscuously,  without  the  slightest 
regard  to  their  former  order,  and  were  bound  together, 
many  of  them  upside  down,  so  that  the  restored  text 
is  in  the  greatest  confusion.     Two  hundred  and  nine 


THE   PALDIPSESTS.  105 

leaves  make  up  the  book  as  it  now  exists,  one  hundred 
and  forty-five  of  which  belong  to  the  New  Testament. 
More  than  one-third  of  the  original  copy  of  the  New 
Testament  portion  is  wholly  wanting.  Thirty-seven 
chapters  of  the  Gospels,  ten  of  the  Acts,  forty-two  of 
the  Ej^istles,  and  eight  of  the  Revelation  are  gone. 
The  whole  of  the  second  Epistle  of  St.  John,  and  the 
whole  of  the  second  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  are  among  the  missing  parts.  Some  sectional 
divisions  appear,  but  there  are  no  sj^aces  between  the 
words ;  and  every  mark  of  antiquity  assigns  a  very 
high  value  to  the  codex.  The  text,  instead  of  stand- 
ing in  more  than  one  column  on  a  page,  as  in  the  Alex- 
andrine and  Vatican  and  other  ancient  manuscripts,  is 
in  only  one  column,  a  fashion  of  writing  that  would  indi- 
cate a  later  date  were  it  not  for  the  other  indubitable 
signs  of  antiquity.  The  order  of  the  books  is  the  same 
as  in  Codex  A,  where  the  General  Epistles  come  after 
the  Acts ;  then  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  Pas- 
toral Epistles  preceding  the  Revelation.  The  Ammo- 
nian  sections  are  found  marked  in  the  margins  of  the 
Gospels,  but  the  Eusebian  canons  do  not  accompany 
them.  Short  and  simple  titles  and  subscriptions  are 
also  used  in  the  Gospels. 

The  comparative  value  of  the  Codex  of  Ephraem 
gives  it  a  place  with  the  first  manuscripts  in  impor- 
tance in  Biblical  studies.  The  Codex  Vaticanus,  the 
Codex  Sinaiticus,  and  in  general,  the  Codex  Alexan- 
drinus  stand  before  it  in  value,  but  in  some  respects  it 
is  superior  to  the  last,  especially  in  the  text  of  the 
Gospels.     The   manuscript  is  written  with  great  ac- 


106  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

curacy  in  almost  all  its  parts  that  are  preserved,  the 
mistakes  being  the  interchange  of  vowels  of  similar 
sound,  and  such  literal  errors  as  readily  betray  them- 
selves and  suggest  their  own  correction.  There  is  one 
remarkable  exception,  however,  and  it  is  the  only  one 
of  the  kind  in  the  whole  codex.  In  the  Revelation 
the  copyist  omitted  a  passage.  The  tired  eye  may 
have  23assed  mechanically  from  one  line  to  another  too 
far  away,  or  some  interruption  may  have  relaxed  the 
vigilance  and  suffered  the  error  to  creep  in.  The  first 
five  lines  upon  a  page  (298)  are  a  correct  transcript  of 
the  ninth  and  tenth  verses  of  the  tenth  chapter,  but 
then  in  the  sixth  line  there  is  a  sudden  change  to  the 
last  verse  of  chapter  seven ;  the  text  then  runs  smoothly 
to  the  end  of  the  fourth  verse  of  the  eighth  chapter, 
when  there  is  again  a  sudden  transition  to  the  middle 
of  the  third  verse  of  the  eleventh  chapter.  A  transla- 
tion of  the  confused  passage  as  it  stands  may  easily 
be  compared  with  the  version  of  King  James,  though 
the  order  of  the  words  is  here  somewhat  different  for 
the  sake  of  preserving  the  arrangement  of  the  original. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  in  the  manuscript  the 
words  have  no  spaces  between  them,  and  they  are 
accordingly  printed  in  the  same  way  in  the  following 
lines,  without  any  attempt,  however  to  imitate  the 
uncial  form. 

^'Anditioasinmymouthashoneysweetandwhentearfrorn 
theireyesandivhenhehadopenedtheseve7ithseciltherecc(mesi 
lenceinheavenhcdfaiihourandisaiothesevenangelsvihostoo 
dheforeGodandtherevmsgwentotheinseventrumpetsanda 
notherangelcameandstoodatthealtarhavrngagoldencense 


J<  A  lO-M  o  Aor'oV  ^^  N  oi  CA^  e  r  A  e 


THE  EPHRAEM  P 

jParis  of  i  Timothy 


^IPSEST. 

I,  15,  1 6. 


THE    PALIMPSESTS.  109 

randthereicasgiveiitohimmicchincensethatheshouldgiveto 

theprayersofallthesaintsupo7ithegoldenaltarbeforethethr 

oneandioentupthesmokeoftheincensetotheprayersofthesa 

mtsfromthehandoftheangelbeforeGodathousandtwohun 

dredandsixtydotIiedinsackdoth^''etc. 

Perhaps  the  copyist  was  drowsy,  and  as  he  dozed 
some  errant  breeze  came  in  at  the  open  lattice  and 
blew  back  the  page  to  the  seventh  chapter,  and  when 
the  writer,  half  ashamed  of  his  negligence,  copied  a 
few  words  from  the  pages  now  opened  before  him  and 
dozed  again,  the  same  mischievous  breath  whirled 
the  leaves  over  to  the  eleventh  chapter,  touched  the 
cheek  of  the  sleeper  to  rouse  him  to  his  task,  and  then 
gaily  leaped  forth  to  a  wild  course  again  over  the  hills. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  the  confusion, 
it  will  serve  as  an  excellent  example  of  the  errors  to 
which  the  most  careful  transcribers  were  liable,  making 
it  a  wonder  that  more  instances  of  the  kind  are  not 
found  in  their  writings. 

Among  all  the  uncial  manuscripts  there  are  only 
eight  or  ten  palimpsests,  and  the  number  is  smaller 
still  among  the  cursives.  The  Codex  C  is  by  far  the 
most  valuable  of  them  all.  The  adjoined  plate  gives 
a  reproduction  of  portions  of  1  Timothy  iii.  15  and  16. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  writing  in  the  fainter  ink 
extends  in  unbroken  lines  quite  across  the  page,  and 
this  is  the  original  text.  The  bolder  writing,  divided 
into  two  columns,  is  the  text  of  Ephraem. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  in  England  a  spirited 
controversy  arose,  having  for  its  centre  the  seven  ex- 
tant epistles  of  Ignatius,  together  with  five  that  were 


110  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

falsely  ascribed  to  him.  It  does  not  interest  us  now 
to  enter  into  the  nature  of  this  dis|)ute,  and  it  is  only 
mentioned  to  exj^lain  the  circumstance,  that  an  anxious 
search  was  instituted  at  this  time  for  new  literary 
relics  of  Ignatius,  which  was  continued  with  unflag- 
ging zeal  over  a  j^eriod  of  many  years.  Archbishop 
Usher  was  particularly  interested,  and  through  his 
influence  all  the  sea-captains  sailing  to  the  East  Avere 
commanded  to  bring  home  at  least  one  manuscrij^t  to 
swell  the  resources  of  English  learning.  Nothing  ap- 
peared, however,  to  assist  in  the  Ignatian  controversy. 
The  larger  number  of  books  brought  home  were  co^^ies 
of  the  Koran,  which  it  was  easy  for  the  sea-caj3tains 
to  obtain  in  the  very  ports  to  which  they  sailed,  and 
naturally,  since  they  could  thus  fulfil  the  requirement 
without  trouble,  they  made  few  attempts  to  penetrate 
the  libraries  and  secret  alcoves,  where  the  most  valua- 
ble documents  were  likely  to  be  stored.  Letters  were 
sent  to  the  principal  Greek  ecclesiastics  throughout 
the  East,  in  the  hope  that  they  might  aid  in  the  search, 
but  only  the  most  meagre  success  attended  these 
efforts.  It  was  thought  that  one  locality  in  particular 
might  furnish  the  desired  documents.  Upon  the  left 
bank  of  the  Nile,  west  of  the  Delta,  was  a  valley, 
which  from  a  very  early  period  had  been  the  resort  of 
recluses,  drawn  thither,  it  is  said,  by  some  supersti- 
tious idea,  that  their  holiness  could  be  j^romoted  by 
ablutions  in  the  water  of  the  adjacent  lakes,  which  was 
strongly  impregnated  with  nitre,  or  a  substance  called 
natron,  which  was  believed  to  be  the  nitre  spoken  of 
by  the  prophet  Jeremiah  (ii.  22).     The  statement  is 


THE   TALIMPSESTS.  Ill 

made,  that  there  were  once  no  less  than  three  hundred 
and  sixty  monasteries  grouped  in  this  one  locality, 
which  took  the  name  Nitria  from  the  character  of  the 
lakes.  In  the  course  of  time,  a  common  danger  was 
the  occasion  for  surrounding  the  remaining  convents 
with  a  kind  of  fortification,  which  at  once  afforded 
protection  to  all  the  monks  and  drew  them  into  closer 
bonds  of  brotherhood.  It  was  believed  in  Europe  that 
this  fortified  retreat  must  have  been  made  the  recepta- 
cle of  many  valuable  documents.  Rev.  Robert  Hunt- 
ington visited  the  place  in  1679,  but  could  not  gain 
access  to  the  libraries.  The  monks  could  understand 
him  only  Avith  difiiculty.  They  were  suspicious  and 
reticent.  He  saw  enough,  however,  to  justify  his  be- 
lief, that  the  store  of  literary  treasures  must  be  rich, 
and  he  returned  to  England  to  report  the  result  of  his 
investigations.  Several  years  later,  another  attempt 
was  made  by  the  Pope,  Clement  XI.,  who  sent  a  native 
Syrian  to  the  desert.  The  monks  received  him  more 
cordially,  allowed  him  to  see  a  sort  of  cellar,  which 
was  full  of  manuscripts  that  they  themselves  were  un- 
able to  read,  and  sold  him  forty  of  them,  which  he 
took  to  Rome ;  there  unfortunately  they  were  de- 
posited in  the  Vatican  Library,  a  place  almost  as 
inaccessible  to  scholars  as  the  Nitrian  monasteries 
themselves.  Other  attempts  followed  from  time  to 
time,  in  hope  of  further  discoveries,  but  as  in  the  case 
of  the  famous  Sinaitic  manuscript,  the  persistent  curi- 
osity of  the  Europeans  concerning  these  neglected 
documents  at  Nitria  raised  their  value  in  the  eyes  of 
the  monks,  and  they  refused  to  part  with  their  treas- 


112  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

ures.  In  1838,  however,  Archdeacon  Tattam,  of  Eng- 
land, set  out  for  Egypt,  and  succeeded  in  persuadmg 
the  Nitrian  monks  to  sell  him  such  books  as  he  might 
desire,  provided  they  did  not  have  any  curses  written 
in  them  such  as  we  have  described  upon  page  30,  for- 
bidding any  one  to  dispose  of  them.  They  took  him 
to  a  vaulted  room,  the  floor  of  which  was  heaped  with 
books  and  fragments,  gave  him  a  stick  with  which  to 
stir  them  up,  and  a  candle  to  dissii^ate  a  little  the 
gloom  of  the  windowless  chamber,  and  left  hhn  to 
study,  and  select  what  he  would.  Similar  advantages 
were  granted  him  at  other  monasteries,  and  he  returned 
to  England  richly  laden  with  spoils.  Forty  of  these 
manuscripts,  from  the  monastery  of  Santa  Maria  Dei- 
para,  were  deposited  in  the  British  Museum  about  the 
year  1847.  Three  of  the  much  desired  letters  of  Igna- 
tius had  been  found,  but  of  far  more  value  than  these 
were  other  documents,  two  of  which  are  to  be  spe- 
cially mentioned,  one  of  them  a  palimpsest  to  be  de- 
scribed in  this  chapter,  and  the  other  a  precious  copy 
of  a  very  ancient  Syriac  version  of  the  Gospels  to  be 
described  upon  a  future  page.  In  the  British  Museum 
the  collection  was  not  only  accessible  to  scholars,  but 
it  was  in  the  constant  charge  of  an  officer  of  the 
library,  whose  own  learning  enabled  him  to  appreci- 
ate the  value  of  the  documents,  and  led  him  to  a 
thorough  investigation  of  their  contents.  This  dis- 
cerning scholar  was  the  Rev.  William  Cureton.  As 
he  was  examining  one  of  the  fragments,  he  found  rea- 
son to  suspect  that  the  document  had  been  twice  writ- 


THE   PALIMPSESTS.  113 

ten,  though  the  traces  of  the  older  text  were  so  very 
faint  as  almost  to  defy  any  attempt  to  decipher  them. 
But  it  was  fully  determined,  that  the  manuscript  was 
a  very  valuable  palimpsest  worthy  of  the  highest  es- 
teem as  one  of  the  most  precious  treasures  of  Chris- 
tendom. 

It  was  found  that  two  ancient  works  had  been 
destroyed  for  the  sake  of  providing  vellum  for  the 
later  treatise,  which  was  a  work  of  Severus  of  Antioch 
against  Grammaticus.  The  older  books  thus  taken 
had  contained  in  one  instance  portions  of  Homer's 
Iliad  with  a  fragment  of  Euclid,  and  in  the  other 
a  part  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke.  The  leaves  con- 
taining the  Scripture  were  deciphered  by  Tregelles  in 
1854  and  by  Tischendorf  in  1855,  and  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  latter  the  document  was  called  Codex  R. 
An  index  of  ancient  chapters  occupied  two  leaves,  and 
the  remainder  contained  portions  of  most  of  the  chap- 
ters of  St.  Luke,  though  the  lacunae  are  very  many 
and  much  to  be  regretted.  Canon  Cureton,  the  ac- 
complished scholar  in  charge  of  the  collection,  pub- 
lished the  fragments  of  Homer  from  this  manuscript 
in  1851 ;  and  seven  years  later,  in  1858,  he  issued  the 
portions  of  the  New  Testament,  with  a  translation 
and  very  valuable  notes. 

The  text  of  the  preserved  passages  is  extremely 
faint,  so  that  it  can  be  read  only  in  the  clearest  light 
and  by  the  most  skilled  eye.  As  it  is  seen  in  the 
Museum,  only  a  fair  day  and  unclouded  sky  will  bring 
out  the  letters  with  sufficient  distinctness  to  make 


114  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

them  at  all  legible.  Add  to  this,  that  the  later  text, 
Written  over  the  ancient  letters,  is  in  characters  very 
black  and  broad  and  completely  covering  the  pages, 
and  the  diflSculty  of  deciphering  the  first  writing  may 
be  conceived.  It  is  said  that  in  reading  it  a  powerful 
lens  was  necessary,  and  that  in  certain  parts  "it  was 
difficult  to  trace  any  of  the  erased  letters,  except  by 
holding  the  leaf  to  the  light  and  catching  the  traces 
of  the  strokes  by  which  the  vellum  had  been  scraped 
rather  thbiner  by  the  style."  The  difficulties  were  so 
great  that  it  was  only  after  continuous  study  for  many 
weeks  that  the  task  was  accomplished,  and  with  such 
success  that  every  leaf  but  one  was  fully  transcribed 
with  the  exception  of  an  occasional  letter,  and,  rarely, 
a  word  which  defied  identification.  The  manuscript  is 
valuable,  being  of  a  very  early  date. 

In  the  same  group  of  Syriac  manuscripts  in  the 
British  Museum  are  a  few  leaves,  containing  a  very 
small  part  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  of  a  great  antiquity. 
The  letters  resemble  closely  the  Vatican  manuscript, 
and  the  vellum,  which  is  extremely  thin  and  fine,  has 
been  used  more  than  once  since  the  original  writing 
was  placed  upon  it.  It  is  one  of  the  few  instances  of 
the  double  palimpsest. 

The  only  other  rescript  of  which  the  details  will  be 
given  is  that  known  by  the  letter  Z,  and  called,  other- 
wise, the  Codex  Dublinensis.  It  is  deposited  in  the 
library  of  Trinity  College,  at  Dublin,  whence  it  takes 
its  name.  One  of  the  Fellows  of  this  institution,  Dr. 
Barrett,  was  one  day  examining  this  manuscript,  when 


THE   PALIMPSESTS.  115 

he  thought  he  discerned  other  letters  under  the  Greek 
text,  which  he  was  reading.  A  more  careful  inspection 
confirmed  the  discovery,  and  he  at  once  set  himself  to 
work  to  decipher  the  ancient  writing.  It  was  found 
to  consist  of  a  part  of  the  Prophecy  of  Isaiah,  certain 
orations  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  and  a  large  portion 
of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel.  Dr.  Barrett  paid  special 
attention  to  the  leaves  containing  the  New  Testament, 
and  in  1801  he  published  the  results  of  his  labors. 
This  publication  was  always  felt  to  be  far  from  satis- 
factory, however,  and  in  1853  the  great  Tregelles  ap- 
plied himself  to  the  work  of  collating  the  manuscript. 
It  was  with  much  hesitation  that  the  determination  was 
reached  to  submit  the  leaves  to  the  chemical  process 
which  had  been  applied  to  the  Codex  of  Ephraem  with 
such  partial  success,  but  at  last  the  experiment  was  at- 
tempted, and  this  time  with  nothing  but  the  happiest 
results.  The  vellttm  was  not  at  all  defaced  by  the 
process,  while,  with  hardly  the  exception  of  a  letter,  all 
the  older  text  was  made  perfectly  legible.  The  value 
of  this  reproduction  will  be  manifest  when  it  is  said 
that  the  original  document  is  undoubtedly  no  later 
than  the  sixth  century.  A  literal  translation  of  the 
nineteenth  and  twentieth  verses  of  the  first  chapter 
of  St.  Matthew,  given  with  an  example  of  the  original 
Greek  in  Home's  Introduction,  is  herewith  appended, 
since  it  shows  very  plainly  two  or  three  instances  of 
contraction  common  to  these  ancient  writings,  as  w^ell 
as  beins^  curious  from  the  enlaro-ement  of  the  last 
letters  of  the  name  Joseph,  which,  however,  are  the 
equivalent  of  only  one  character  in  the  Greek :  — 


116  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCEIPTS. 


nowthebirthofjschtth 
uswas-beingespous 
edhismother 
marytojosePHbefore 

THEYCAMETOGETHERSHEWAS 

rOUNDWITHCHILD 

BYTHEHOLYSPT- 

JOSEP  HTHENHERHUSB  AND 
BEINGAJUSTMANANDNOTWILL  .  .  . 
TOMAKEHERAPUBLICEXAMPLE 
WASMINDEDPRIVILYTOPUT 
HERAWAY. 

Other  palim23sests  of  special  value  are  the  Codex 
GuELPHEEBYTANUs  A  and  the  Codex  Guelpherby- 
TANus  B,  known  respectively  by  the  capitals  P  and  Q. 
They  were  both  found,  with  other  ancient  leaves,  in  a 
volume  known  as  the  Codex  Carolinus.  P  consists 
of  forty-three  leaves,  containing  parts  of  the  four  Gos- 
pels, some  portions  of  which,  however,  are  entirely 
illegible,  and  it  belongs  to  the  sixth  century.  Q  con- 
sists of  only  thirteen  leaves,  which  have  parts  of 
twelve  chapters  of  St.  Luke  and  of  two  chapters  of  St. 
John.     It  has  been  assigned  to  the  fifth  century. 

The  palimpsests  are  few,  as  already  remarked,  and 
those  that  could  find  mention  in  these  pages  have  thus 
been  grouped  together,  as  representing  one  kind  of 
manuscripts  and  the  difficulties  incident  to  their  elu- 
cidation. Had  the  order  of  value  of  the  codices  been 
observed.  Codex  C  should  have  been  followed  im- 
mediately by  the  manuscript  first  mentioned  in  the 
next  chapter. 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMENTS,    AND   CURSIVES.        117 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

OTHER   UNCIALS,    FRAGJIENTS,    AND    CURSIVES. 

Codex  D  of  the  Gospels  is  also  known  by  the  name 
of  its  discoverer  Beza ;  and  as  the  Vatican  manuscript 
is  so  called  because  it  is  preeminent  among  all  the 
manuscrijits  of  the  Vatican  Library,  this  codex  is 
given  a  third  name.  Codex  Cantabrigiensis,  because 
it  is  the  greatest  treasure  of  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge. In  the  troublous  times  in  France  during  the 
religious  wars,  which  began  about  the  year  1562,  and 
in  which  so  many  Protestants  were  destined  to  perish, 
Theodore  Beza,  preacher,  j^rofessor,  reformer,  found 
opportunity  to  enrich  the  church  by  Biblical  studies, 
which  will  make  his  name  famous  so  long  as  men 
shall  read  the  word  of  God.  Early  in  his  career  he 
was  banished  with  other  Protestants  from  France,  his 
native  country,  and  in  Geneva  found  at  the  same  time 
a  refuge  and  a  place  in  which  to  labor  for  the  truth. 
In  the  year  1562,  he  was  enabled  to  return  to  Paris  as 
chaplain  to  the  Prince  of  Cond^  and  afterward  to 
Coligni,  and  it  was  in  this  year  of  his  return  to  France 
that  he  discovered  the  manuscript  of  so  much  im- 
portance, which  bears  his  name.  He  says  that  he 
found  it  at  Lyons   in  a  monastery  dedicated  to   St. 


118  THE    STORY   OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

Irenaeiis,  but  whether  it  came  into  his  possession  by 
gift,  or  purchase,  has  never  been  fully  known.  It  has 
been  conjectured  with  some  degree  of  probability, 
that  it  was  taken  by  violence  from  the  monastery, 
doubtless  by  some  other  hand  than  Beza's,  and  thus 
came  indirectly  into  his  possession.  Certain  it  is  that 
in  this  very  year,  which  saw  the  first  violent  outbreak 
of  the  religious  wars,  the  Huguenots,  or  rather  Francis 
de  Beaumont,  Baron  of  Adrets,  who  had  attached 
himself  to  the  Huguenot  party,  sacked  the  great  city 
of  Lyons  and  pillaged  the  monastery.  What  is  more 
likely  than  that  some  soldier  of  the  better  sort,  or 
possibly,  Adrets  "the  Infamous"  himself,  may  have 
recognized  this  book  as  of  possible  value,  and  secured 
it  as  a  gift  to  the  revered  scholar  then  following  the 
fortunes  of  the  court  of  Conde  ?  At  all  events  it  is 
most  probable  that  this  manuscript,  like  the  Sinaitic 
Codex,  though  from  another  cause,  came  near  perishing 
in  the  flames.  In  the  absence  of  certain  information 
upon  these  points  of  exceeding  interest,  it  will  sufiice 
to  mark  how  in  the  midst  of  Beza's  absorbing  occupar 
tions  the  instinct  of  the  scholar  at  once  perceived  the 
value  of  the  volume.  When  it  was  once  securely  in 
his  possession  he  gave  himself  to  its  inspection  Avith 
enthusiasm.  He  collated  portions  of  it  for  his  own 
private  use,  as  appears  from  his  edition  of  the  Greek 
of  the  'New  Testament,  and  in  1581  he  sent  it  as  a 
gift  to  the  University  of  Cambridge,  where  it  is  now 
treasured  and  may  be  seen  in  its  glass  case  in  the  New 
Library. 

Codex  Bezse  is  certainly  as  old  as  the  sixth  century. 


UNCIALS,    FEAGMENTS,    AND   CURSIVES.        119 

and  it  may  belong  to  the  fifth,  and  as  such  it  takes 
rank  with  the  few  leading  uncials,  which  are  of  most 
value  in  determining  the  original  text  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. It  is  a  large  quarto  volume,  of  four  hundred 
and  fifteen  leaves,  now  very  elegantly  bound.  The 
paging  shows  that  originally  there  were  at  least  five 
hundred  and  twelve  leaves;  nine  of  the  leaves  that 
are  preserved  are  not  of  the  original  volume,  and  can- 
not be  of  a  date  earlier  than  the  tenth  century. 

The  manuscript  contains  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts, 
with  considerable  omissions,  and  many  of  the  leaves 
are  so  mutilated  as  to  injure  the  text  of  the  remaining 
portions.  The  Greek  is  written  in  square,  upright 
uncials  in  a  single  column  upon  the  left-hand  page,  as 
the  book  lies  open  before  the  reader,  and  a  Latin 
translation  by  the  same  hand  which  wrote  the  Greek 
occupies  the  right-hand  page.  The  Latin  is  of  the 
Old  Latin  version,  earlier  than  that  of  Jerome.  There 
are  no  spaces  between  the  words,  no  accents,  or  marks 
of  breathing,  though  punctuation  is  attempted  in 
many  places  by  a  simple  dot,  appearing  more  frequently 
in  the  Latin  than  in  the  Greek.  The  work  is  arrang-ed 
stichometrically,  and  the  lines  are  therefore  of  unequal 
length.  In  the  order  of  the  books,  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John  comes  between  those  of  Sts.  Matthew  and  Luke, 
while  St.  Mark's  Gospel  precedes  the  Acts.  It  is 
usual  in  manuscripts  ^-ritten  stichometrically  for  a 
summary  of  the  stichoi  to  be  given  at  the  close  of  the 
work,  but  in  this  manuscript  it  is  wanting.  The 
Ammonian  sections  appear,  but  there  is  no  reference 
to  the  canons  of  Eusebius.     The  margins  of  the  pages 


120  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

are  marked  frequently  with  titles  and  notes,  but  none 
of  these  are  by  the  writer  of  the  original  text. 

Scholars  are  very  generally  agreed  in  assigning 
Codex  D  to  an  Alexandrian  source,  though  some  think 
that  the  Latin  accompaniment  indicates  an  origin 
somewhere  in  the  west  of  Europe.*  It  is  evident 
from  the  text  itself  that  the  transcriber  was  not  an 
adept  in  the  use  either  of  the  Greek  or  Latin,  and 
that  his  work  was  performed  only  in  a  mechanical 
fashion,  without  sufficient  knowledge  to  preserve  his 
hand  from  many  great  mistakes.  Dr.  Scrivener  says 
that  "  nothing  is  more  likely,  than  that  this  most  ven- 
erable document was  a  native  of  the  country  in 

which  it  was  found the  style  and  diction  are 

exactly  suitable  to  a  province  like  Gaul,  where  the 
classical  language  was  fast  breaking  up  into  the  ver- 
nacular dialect  from  which  the  modern  French  derives 
its  origin,  to  whose  usage  indeed  a  few  of  its  words 
and  phrases  apj^roximate  in  a  manner  which  cannot  be 
accidental." 

There  is  a  singular  instance  in  this  manuscript  of 
the  ways  in  which  a  slight  peculiarity  in  the  text  may 
sometimes  serve  to  fix  a  date  or  identify  the  text, 
which  would  otherwise  be  difficult  or  impossible.  The 
critic  Wetstein,  and  after  him  several  others,  argued 

*  Bleek  asserts  of  these  Greek-Latin  codices,  that  they  must 
be  assigned  in  nearly  all  cases  to  a  western  origin,  for  it  was 
only  in  the  West  that  the  Latin  language  prevailed,  but  that  an 
eastern  Greek  text  was  probably  the  basis  of  all  such  translations 
(Einleitung,  §  270).  Both  the  Latin  and  Greek  texts  may  have 
been  prepared  in  Egypt  with  their  use  by  the  western  churches 
in  view. 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMENTS,    AND   CURSIVES.        121 

from   a   single  word  occurring  in   St.  John's   Gospel 
(xxi.  22)  that  this  codex  can  be  traced  farther  back 
in  history  than  the  date  at  which  it  was  brought  to 
light  at  Lyons.     In  the  verse  indicated  the  word  thus 
is  written,  so  that  the  verse  reads :  "  If  I  will  that  he 
tarry  thus  till  I  come,  Avhat  is  that  to  thee  ?    Follow 
thou  me."     Now  in  the  Latin  Vulgate  a  reading  ap- 
pears by  the  addition  of  a  single  letter,  which  seems  to 
authorize  the  tradition  of  which  the  Gospel  speaks, — • 
that  St.  John  Avas  not  to  die.     By  the  addition  of  c  to 
the  Avord  si^  si  volo,  ifl  will,  becomes  sic  volo,  thus  I 
will.     Now  Codex  D  is  the  only  manuscript  known 
which  even  to  this   extent  agrees  with  the  Vulgate. 
But  it  is  a  fact  of  history  that  in  the  year  1546,  at  the 
Council  of  Trent,   an   ecclesiastic   named  William   a 
Prato,  the  Bishop  of  Clermont  in  Auvergne,  exhibited 
to  the  council  a  Greek  codex  of  very  early  date,  which 
confirmed  the  translation  in  the  Latin  Vulgate.    A 
natural  inference  is  that  William  a  Prato  brought  the 
manuscript  to  Trent  from  his  own  diocese,  or  from 
some  library  in  the  vicinity.     Add  to  this  that  Henry 
Stephens    collated    a    manuscript,    afterwards  known 
as  i?',  at  about  this  time   (1547)   "in  Italy,"  for  the 
assistance  of  his  father,   Robert  Stephens,  who  was 
preparing  an  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament  published 
in    1550.  "■    The   readings   thus  extracted  from  (?'  are 
identical  in  an  extraordinary  number  of  places  with 
those  of  the  Codex  Bezae,  leaving  the  almost  inevit- 
able conclusion  that  (^'  was  identical  with  D.     These 
circumstances    make    it    most   probable   that    Beza's 
manuscript  had  not  been  so  long  in  the  monastery  at 


122  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

Lyons  as  he  thought  it  had  when  he  wrote  the  note 
which  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  volume  at  Cambridge, 
and  which  intimates  that  it  had  long  been  a  treasure, 
though  dust-covered  and  almost  forgotten,  of  the 
library  where  it  was  found.  Possibly  Stephens  may 
have  seen  it  in  Lyons,  and  his  father's  statement  that 
it  was  studied  "  in  Italy  "  may  be  a  mistake  ;  but  it  is 
far  more  likely  that  the  document  was  really  seen  by 
the  younger  Stephens  in  Italy,  as  recorded,  and  that 
the  manuscript  was  changing  jDossessors  during  these 
years.  If  (5',  and  the  copy  shown  at  the  Council  of 
Trent,  and  D,  were  really  one  and  the  same  document, 
we  have  these  facts :  Clermont  in  Auvergne  was  in 
France,  some  distance  to  the  west  of  Lyons ;  Trent 
was  in  the  Tyrol.  Any  place  in  the  extreme  north  of 
Italy  may  serve  for  Stephens's  description.  In  1546 
the  manuscript  was  in  the  hands  of  the  bishojD  of  Cler- 
mont at  Trent ;  the  next  year  Stephens  saw  it  in 
Italy ;  fifteen  years  afterward  it  is  found  in  Lyons. 
What  more  natural  than  that  it  originated,  as  sug- 
gested, somewhere  among  the  churches  of  Southern 
France ;  came  into  the  possession  of  the  bishop  of 
Clermont ;  was  carried  by  him,  as  a  document  curious 
and  theologically  useful,  to  Trent ;  thence,  when  the 
council  divided,  in  March  of  1547,  and  thirty-eight  of 
the  fifty-six  bishops  present  adjourned  to  Bologna  in 
the  north  of  Italy,  it  went  with  them,  where  it  may 
have  met  the  eye  of  Stephens ;  and  thence,  sooner  or 
later,  returned  to  its  native  regions,  and  found  place 
in  the  celebrated  monastery  at  Lyons  ?  But  whatever 
may  be  the  truth,  the  whole  case  is  traced  back  to  the 


UNCIALS,    FKAGMENTS,    AND   CURSIVES.         123 

one  word  thus  in  St.  John's  Gospel,  together  with  the 
coincidences  of  reading  between  §'  and  D,  for  the 
second  part  of  the  chain  of  inferences.  Truly  it  may 
sometimes  be  said  of  the  science  of  Biblical  criticism : 
"  How  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth ! " 

The  text  of  this  manuscript  has  several  striking 
peculiarities.  As  already  said,  the  mistakes  are  so 
numerous,  and  of  such  a  character,  as  to  prove  the 
writer  to  be  ill  acquainted  with  the  languages  used. 
There  are  also  a  very  large  number  of  interpolations, 
with  glosses  more  frequent  than  in  any  other  of  the 
important  codices.  The  Latin  is,  moreover,  so  exactly 
moulded  to  the  sense  of  the  Greek  text,  that  even  the 
laws  of  grammar  are  neglected  in  the  desire  to  have 
the  two  columns  coincide ;  as  Hug  says  in  his  Intro- 
duction, this  has  been  done  "with  childish  scrupu- 
losity." 

It  is  a  matter  of  special  interest  that  this  manuscript 
is  the  oldest  which  contains  the  passage  in  the  eighth 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  relating  the  story  of  the 
woman  taken  in  adultery.  Later  copies  contain  the 
narrative,  but  Codex  D  differs  even  from  these  in  the 
form  in  which  it  appears.  From  its  entire  absence  in 
many  of  the  most  valuable  codices,  Lachmann,  Tisch- 
endorf,  and  Tregelles,  all  omit  it  from  their  editions, 
and  it  is  probable  that  where  it  is  found  it  was  intro- 
duced on  account  of  its  transmission  through  Papias 
and  Eusebius.  But  that  it  appears  in  this  codex  is 
evidence  of  an  extremely  early  origin  for  the  story 
and  its  incorporation  in  the  Gospel,  whether  it  may 
have  been  written  by  the  inspired  author  or  not.     In 


124  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  there  are  many  places  where 
the  text  differs  materially  in  form  from  that  of  other 
manuscripts,  and  the  additions,  though  certainly  unau- 
thentic, are  often  full  of  interest.  Dr.  Scrivener  men- 
tions an  instance  in  Luke's  Gospel  with  circumstances 
of  which  he  was  a  witness,  in  the  following  words ;  — 

"The  most  remarkable  j^assage  in  this  manuscript, 
in  regard  to  which  it  stands  quite  alone,  is  that  which 
follows  Luke  vi.  4,  on  the  leaf  which  is  usually  kept 
open  at  Cambridge  for  the  insj)ection  of  visitors.  It 
runs  thus :  — 

"  '  On  the  same  day  he  beheld  a  certain  man  work- 
ing on  the  Sabbath,  and  said  unto  him,  Man,  blessed 
art  thou  if  thou  knowest  what  thou  doest,  but  if  thou 
knowest  not,  thou  art  cursed  and  a  transgressor  of  the 
law.' 

"I  was  present  when  this  passage  was  shown  at 
Cambridge  to  a  learned  Greek  Archimandrite,  Philip- 
pos  Schulati  of  Kustandje.  He  had  never  heard  either 
of  it  or  of  the  manuscript  before,  but  after  a  moment's 
thought  his  comment  was  ready:  'This  cannot  be: 
the  Lord  cursed  no  man.'  " 

The  other  codex  to  which  the  letter  D  is  applied  is 
the  Codex  D  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  No.  107  in  the 
National  Library  of  Paris,  and  also  called  the  Codex 
Claeomontanus  from  Clermont  near  Beauvais,  in  the 
north  of  France,  where  it  was  discovered  by  Beza,  in 
the  year  1582,  soon  after  sending  T)  of  the  Gospels 
and  Acts  to  England.  From  Beza  it  passed  through 
the  hands  of  Claude  Dupuy  and  his  sons,  eminent 
scholars  of  Paris,  one  of  whom,  Jacques,  was  the  king's 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMENTS,    AND   CURSIVES.        125 

librarian.  He  brought  it  to  the  notice  of  Louis  XIV., 
and  it  was  purchased  for  the  royal  collection.  It  is  a 
quarto  on  "  the  thinnest  and  finest  vellum  known  to 
exist,  and  has  five  hundred  and  thirty-three  leaves, 
with  parallel  columns  of  Greek  and  Latin,  giving  all 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  except  Rom.  i.  1-7 ;  27-30 ; 
and  1  Cor.  xiv.  13-22.  Several  portions  of  the  ex- 
tant Scripture,  however,  are  the  work  of  another 
copyist  than  the  original  transcriber,  though  these 
supplied  parts  are  very  ancient.  The  form  of  the 
writing  both  in  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  is  simple  and 
elegant,  the  characters  being  very  nearly  the  same  size 
as  those  in  D  of  the  Gospels.  The  manuscript  is 
stichometrical  in  form,  and  must,  therefore,  have  been 
written  after  the  year  462,  when  this  method  of  writ- 
ing was  first  applied  to  the  Epistles  by  Euthalius,  and 
it  is  generally  agreed  that  Tischendorfs  decision  that 
it  belongs  to  the  sixth  century  is  correct.  It  undoubt- 
edly emanated  from  North  Africa.  This  codex  has 
been  unfortunate  in  many  respects.  Thirty-five  of  its 
precious  leaves  were  stolen  in  1707  by  John  Aymont, 
w^hose  name  has  thus  come  down  to  posterity  Avith  in- 
famy. He  sold  one  leaf  in  Holland,  but  i«s  honorable 
possessor  restored  it  to  the  library  containing  the  vol- 
ume. The  remainder  of  the  stolen  portion  was  bought 
by  Harley,  Earl  of  Oxford,  an  enthusiastic  collector, 
but  it  was  restored  by  his  son  in  1729.  In  addition  to 
these  evils,  now  so  happily  corrected,  there  have  been 
several  hands,  that  at  different  times  have  tampered 
with  the  text.  The  original  writer  made  many  correc- 
tions.    Then  came  some   one,   who,  Tischendorf  be- 


126  THE    STORY    OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

lieves,  was  a  monk  from  Sinai  or  some  Greek  monastery 
not  far  from  there,  who  revised  the  whole  of  the  Greek 
and  made  many  corrections.  He  was  of  the  seventh 
century.  The  next  reviser  altered  a  few  places  in  both 
the  Greek  and  the  Latin.  The  next  touched  only  a  few 
passages.  Then  a  fourth  took  the  work  in  hand,  and 
with  deplorable  zeal  investigated  the  whole  document, 
changed  the  spelling,  added  accents  and  other  marks, 
and  attempted  even  more  serious  alterations  by  insert- 
ing readings  from  another  source.  More  than  two 
thousand  places  show  his  interference.  After  him  at 
least  six  successive  correctors  are  believed  by  Tischen- 
dorf  to  have  attempted  similar  work.  The  result  was 
naturally  most  unfortunate,  and  the  value  and  beauty 
of  the  original  were  sadly  injured.  Several  collations 
of  this  manuscript  have  been  given  to  the  public,  the 
most  sumptuous  of  which  is  the  facsimile  edition  by 
Tischendorf  published  at  Leipzig  in  1852. 

We  now  pass  to  a  few  manuscrij^ts  that  may  be 
briefly  mentioned,  though  all  are  of  great  value  in  the 
work  of  textual  recension. 

Codex  E,  or  Laudianus,  has  already  been  referred 
to  (page  43)  as  an  example  of  stichometry,  in  which  the 
arrangement  of  the  text  gives  but  one  word  to  a  line, 
with  only  a  few  exceptions  in  which  two  or  three  words 
stand  together.  The  text  is  also  written  in  an  unusual 
fashion,  in  having  a  Latin  version  in  a  left-hand  col- 
umn preceding  the  Greek  on  the  page.  It  is  thought 
from  this  order,  that  the  Latin  was  regarded  as  the  prin- 
cipal text  in  the  place  where  the  volume  was  used,  and 
that  the  Greek  was  added  for  the  sake  of  the  scholars 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMENTS,    AND    CURSIVES.        127 

connected  with  the  church  or  community,  which  was 
probably  in  Western  Europe.  The  date  is  the  sixth 
or  seventh  century.  An  example  of  the  stichometri- 
cal  arrangement  is  given  in  the  Plate,  showing  the 
Greek  and  Latin  columns. 

Many  other  manuscripts  of  importance  might  be  de- 
scribed, but  the  remaining  pages  of  this  chapter  must  be 
given  to  the  mention  of  a  few  remarkable  fragments, 
which  illustrate  the  perils  to  which  these  early  and 
precious  documents  were  often  subjected,  and  also 
the  wonderful  skill  of  critical  scholars  in  recognizing 
relics,  and  assigning  them  their  true  places  among  the 
materials  of  use  in  the  study  of  the  Greek  text.  A 
brief  reference  to  two  or  three  cursives  must  follow. 

The  Codex  Regius,  L,  contains  large  portions  of  the 
four  Gospels,,  and  is  of  great  value.  It  dates  perhaps 
from  the  last  part  of  the  seventh  century,  though 
Tischendorf  assigns  it  to  the  eighth,  and  Griesbach 
and  others  have  placed  it  as  late  as  the  ninth.  But 
notwithstanding  its  late  origin,  it  agrees  in  a  remark- 
able manner  with  some  of  the  greater  uncials.  The 
copyist  has  betrayed  incompetence  in  many  ways,  but 
he  has  preserved  the  reading  of  the  most  ancient 
documents.  Scrivener  says  of  this  codex,  it  is  "by 
far  the  most  remarkable  document  of  its  age  and 
class."  It  is  in  close  harmony  especially  with  Codex 
B,  and  the  quotations  of  Origen,  as  well  as  the  marginal 
notes  of  the  Philoxenian  Syriac,  are  in  accord  with  it. 
In  connection  with  its  most  important  testimony  to 
certain  passages,  it  will  be  referred  to  again. 

The  Codex  Purpureus,  N,  is  so  called  because  for 


128  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

a  long  period  it  was  the  most  noteworthy  of  the  man- 
uscripts whose  text  was  written  upon  purple  vellum. 
It  is  in  four  parts.  The  vellum  is  very  thin  and  was 
once  of  a  very  rich  color,  upon  which  the  silver  letters 
in  which  the  entire  text  was  written  must  have  pre- 
sented a  beautiful  appearance.  The  words  God,  Jesus, 
Lord,  Saviour,  Son,  and  other  names  of  the  Deity,  are 
in  letters  of  gold,  which  preserves  its  lustre,  though  all 
the  silver  text  has  become  black  with  age.  It  was  in 
the  end  of  the  sixth,  or  the  early  part  of  the  seventh 
century,  that  this  sujoerb  book  was  made.  Double 
columns  stand  upon  a  page ;  the  letters  are  large  and 
round,  and  written  with  the  greatest  distinctness. 
Four  leaves  only  of  this  volume  are  preserved  in  the 
British  Museum  among  the  Cotton  manuscripts,  a 
collection  made  by  three  generations  ofgihe  family  of 
that  name  and  given  by  them  to  the  Museum.  Six 
leaves  of  the  same  book  are  in  the  Vatican  in  Rome, 
and  two  are  in  the  Imperial  Library  of  Vienna.  A 
late  discovery  in  the  monastery  of  St.  John,  upon  the 
Isle  of  Patmos,  revealed  thirty-three  similar  leaves, 
which  have  been  identified  as  belonging  to  the  same 
book.  These  fragments  have  already  been  briefly 
mentioned  upon  page  46. 

Codex  M  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  otherwise  called 
from  its  color  the  Codex  Ruber,  was  separated  and 
used  for  fly-leaves  to  a  volume  of  comparatively  little 
value  among  the  Harleian  collection  in  the  British 
Museum.  Another  small  fragment  of  the  same  original 
book  is  cherished  at  Hamburg.  When  Griesbach,  al- 
ready familiar  with  the  fragment  upon  the  continent. 


xw6\*ve 
6eus 

uisus  esT 

NO  STTRO 


0-A,6  6(j)H 
aA6\4>OI 

xKoycxT'e 
oec 

ujcj)e  H 
Tconp 


CODEX    LAUDIANUS. 
Ac^S   VII,    2. 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMENTS,    AND    CURSIVES.        131 

saw  the  leaves  in  London,  he  exclaimed  instantly  that 
they  were  of  the  same  volume,  recognizing  at  a  glance 
the  peculiar  form  of  the  text,  as  well  as  the  brilliant 
color  of  the  ink  in  which  it  is  written. 

Another  valuable  fragment,  T,  or  Codex  Borgi- 
ANUS,  of  the  fifth  century,  has  only  thirteen  leaves. 
In  this  instance  it  is  known  how  only  a  small  part  of 
the  volume  has  been  preserved.  A  monk  started 
from  Egypt  with  the  whole  work  in  his  possession, 
but  regarded  it  as  of  no  special  value.  His  ignorance 
and  carelessness  were  so  great,  that  upon  his  arrival 
in  Europe  with  only  thirteen  of  the  j^recious  leaves, 
he  had  no  better  exj^lanation  to  give  of  the  absence 
of  the  remainder  than  that  he  had  lost  them  during 
the  journey !  The  thirteen  leaves  are  a  part  of  the 
collection  in  the  library  of  the  Propaganda  at  Rome. 

Another  fragment,  rescued  by  remarkable  skill,  is  a 
single  leaf  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mark,  known  by  the 
sign  W,  and  deposited  at  Trinity  College  in  Cam- 
bridge, in  England.  The  leaf  is  made  up  of  twenty- 
seven  different  pieces^  into  which  it  had  been  torn  in 
binding  a  volume  of  the  works  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzum. 
The  true  character  of  the  pieces  was  detected  by  Mr. 
Bradshaw,  the  librarian  of  the  University,  in  1862,  and 
they  were  separated  from  the  binding  and  arranged 
together  upon  a  sheet  of  glass,  as  seen  at  present.  A 
somewhat  similar  case  is  that  of  O,  or  the  Codex 
MosQUENsis,  in  the  Library  of  the  Holy  Synod  at 
Moscow,  consisting  of  eight  leaves,  which  were  found 
in  the  binding  of  a  copy  of  Chrysostom's  Homilies 
formerly  at  Mount  Athos.    But  perhaps  the  most  note- 


132  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

worthy  of  all  the  manuscripts  thus  rescued  from  the 
bindings  of  books,  and  from  other  purposes  foreign  to 
their  original  one,  is  that  of  Codex  Coislinianus,  H^, 
which  is  in  many  parts.  The  whole  number  of  leaves 
now  known  is  twenty-nine,*  and  they  were  all  found 
in  the  binding  of  manuscripts,  which  belonged  origin- 
ally to  the  Monastery  of  St.  Athanasius  at  Mount  Athos. 
The  codex  is  divided  between  many  places,  twelve 
leaves  being  in  the  National  Library  at  Paris,  two  in 
the  Imperial  Library  at  St.  Petersburg,  two  at  Mos- 
cow, four  belonging  to  Archbishop  Porfiri  and  the 
Archimandrite  Antony  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  nine  re- 
cently discovered  in  a  monastery  upon  Mount  Athos. 
The  text  is  of  much  value,  and  it  is  regretted  that  the 
parts  are  so  difficult  of  access.  But  the  Codex  Cois- 
linianus  must  ever  be  considered  as  a  good  illustration 
of  the  extent  to  which  critical  scholarship  can  go  in 
the  recognition  of  these  ancient  fragments,  the  deter- 
mination of  their  relations  to  each  other,  and  of  their 
value  for  the  purposes  of  textual  study.  Ignorance 
degraded  them  to  inferior  uses.  Learning  has  rescued 
and  restored  them,  and  even  more  than  that,  has 
bestowed  upon  them  a  new  dignity  at  present,  by 
applying  them  to  the  study  of  texts  by  several  centu- 
ries earlier  than  their  own. 

It  will  be  sufficient  to  speak  of  only  three  or  four 
cursives  out  of  the  many  hundreds  that  are  extant, 
and  to  exhibit  a  single  plate,  (a  facsimile  of  Luke  i. 

*  Compare  the  Critical  Handbook,  Professor  E.  C.  Mitchell, 
D.  D. ;  p.  111.  Tables  revised  by  Professor  Ezra  Abbot,  D.  D., 
LL.  D. 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMENTS,    AND    CURSIVES.        133 

8-11,  of  Codex  33  as  given  by  Scrivener),  whicli  may 
illustrate  the  difference  between  the  uncial  writing 
used  in  the  manuscripts  thus  far  described,  and  the 
form  which  prevailed  after  the  tenth  century. 

Codex  1,  in  the  Library  of  Basle,  contains  the  whole 
of  the  New  Testament,  except  the  Revelation.  The 
great  scholar  Reuchlin  once  had  it  for  a  considerable 
time  in  his  possession,  having  borrowed  it  from  the 
Dominican  monks  of  Basle,  but  he  made  little  or  no 
use  of  it  to  add  to  our  Biblical  knowledge.  More 
important  was  its  employment  by  Erasmus  in  the 
preparation  of  his  New  Testament,  but  strangely 
enough  he  rejected  its  aid  after  finding  that  its  read- 
ings disagreed  with  other  copies  with  which  he  was* 
more  familiar.  Yet  unquestionably  Codex  1  was  the 
most  valuable  authority  then  at  hand  in  Basle,  and 
Erasmus  would  better  have  rejected  all  the  other 
copies,  or  at  least  assigned  them  their  inferior  place, 
than  have  refused  the  voice  of  this  valuable  document. 
It  is  Avritten  in  an  elegant  style,  with  minute  letters, 
and  fully  equipped  with  accents  and  breathings,  and 
other  aids  to  reading  the  text.  The  initials  are  in 
gold,  and  the  full  point  that  occurs  on  the  first  pag'e 
of  each  Gospel  is  a  large  ball  of  gold.  The  manu- 
script was  once  adorned  with  splendid  miniatures, 
among  which  were  said  to  be  a  portrait  of  the  Em- 
peror Leo  the  Philosopher  (VI)  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire,  who  reigned  from  886  to  912.  Another  rei> 
resented  his  son  Constantine.  But  all  the  miniatures 
were  stolen  from  the  volume,  except  one  before  St. 
Luke's  Gospel.     This  manuscript  is  believed  to  have 


134  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

been   made  in   the  tenth  century,  and  its  text  is  of 
great  value,  similar  to  that  of  the  uncials  B  and  L. 

It  is  generally  agreed  by  scholars  that  no  cursive 
exceeds  in  importance  that  which  is  known  by  the 
number  33,  the  "Queen  of  the  Cursives,"  as  it  has 
been  called  by  Eichhorn.  Its  date  is  as  late  as  the 
eleventh  century,  but  its  value  in  determining  the  text 
is  to  be  rated  only  next  to  the  first  four  or  five  uncials 
of  the  earliest  dates.  The  various  readings  of  its  text, 
and  its  likeness  to  the  uncials  just  mentioned,  make  it 
of  great  importance.  It  contains  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  New  Testament,  except  the  Revelation,  together 
with  a  part  of  the  Prophets.  The  manuscript  is  on 
vellum,  almost  every  leaf  of  which  has  suffered  from 
damp  and  consequent  decay.  The  ink,  too,  has  been 
affected  by  the  moisture,  and  the  text  has  been  very 
greatly  injured.  In  several  cases  the  leaves  have 
stuck  together  so  closely,  that  their  separation  was 
only  accomplished  at  the  cost  of  the  entire  transfer 
of  the  ink  upon  one  page  to  the  other,  so  that  the 
manuscript  can  only  be  read  by  the  set-off,  as  printers 
call  it,  on  the  opposite  page.  This  gives  the  Greek 
backwards,  as  well  as  mingled  with  the  writing  origin- 
ally upon  the  page.  It  may  well  be  imagined,  that 
such  a  double  and  reversed  text  can  only  be  made  out 
with  the  utmost  difficulty,  often  greater  than  that 
attending  the  study  of  a  palimpsest.  Tregelles  says 
of  it,  that  of  all  the  manuscripts  upon  which  he  had 
worked  none  had  "ever  been  so  wearisome  to  the 
eyes  and  exhaustive  of  every  faculty  of  attention." 
Yet  even  in  the  most  obscure  places,  and  often  where 


CODEX   33:    C 

Luke  I,  8 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMENTS,    AND   CURSIVES.        137 

the  original  page  has  wholly  decayed,  the  set-off  has 
been  successfully  deciphered,  as  one  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  of  learning  and  patient  skill.  In  1850  Tre- 
gelles  collated  the  whole  manuscript,  reviewing  the 
former  editions  by  Larroque  and  Scholz,  and  referring 
every  difference  a  second  time  to  the  codex  itself. 
The  volume,  a  fine  folio,  is  in  the  National  Library  at 
Paris. 

Codex  61,  or  Moxtfortianus,  derives  its  name 
from  one  of  its  former  possessors.  Rev.  Thomas  Mont- 
fort,  D.  D.,  of  Cambridge.  It  is  now  at  Trinity 
College,  Dublin.  This  manuscript  is  of  special  interest 
among  the  cursives  from  the  part  it  has  played  in  the 
discussion  of  the  interpolated  verse  in  the  First 
Epistle  of  St.  John  (v.  7),  the  verse  of  the  "  Three 
Heavenly  Witnesses."  It  contains  the  whole  Kew 
Testament,  written  apparently  by  three  or  four  dif- 
ferent hands,  and  is  composed  of  four  hundred  and 
fifty-five  paper  leaves,  only  one  of  which  is  glazed. 
This  single  glazed  leaf  is  the  one  containing  the  verse 
mentioned.  A  witty  Irish  prelate,  quoted  by  Scrive- 
ner,* said  of  this  coincidence  : — "  We  often  hear  that 
the  text  of  the  Three  Heavenly  Witnesses  is  a  gloss^ 
and  anyone  that  will  go  into  the  College  Library  may 
see  as  much  for  himself.^''  When  Erasmus  published 
his  two  earliest  editions  of  the  New  Testament  he  did 
not  insert  this  verse,  and  was  severely  blamed  for  the 
omission.  Llis  defence  was  that  it  was  not  found  in 
the  manuscripts  used  by  him,  and  he  pledged  himself 
to  insert  it  in  his  revisions  if  any  Greek  copy  could  be 

*  Plain  Introduction,  p.  173,  Note. 


138  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

found  containing  it.  In  his  third  edition  he  printed 
the  verse  (in  1552),  s.aying  that  he  found  it  in  a  Codex 
Britannicus  discovered  in  England.  The  verse,  as 
l^rinted  by  Erasmus,  is  in  exact  verbal  agreement  with 
the  text  uj^on  this  glazed  leaf  of  Montfortianus,  and  it 
is  wholly  agreed  that  the  Codex  Britannicus  must 
have  been  the  one  now  known  by  this  name.  The 
earliest  owner  of  the  manuscript  whose  name  we 
know  was  Froy,  a  Franciscan  friar,  from  whom  it 
passed  to  Thomas  Clement;  next  it  was  owned  by 
William  Chark;  then  by  Montfort;  then  by  Arch- 
bishop Usher ;  from  whose  hands  it  came  into  posses- 
sion of  the  college  in  Dublin.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
the  name  of  the  third  owner  was  William  Chark,  and 
when  we  come  to  speak  of  the  next  cursive  it  will  be 
found  that  he  was  also  at  one  time  the  possessor  of 
the  Codex  No.  69.  In  61  the  Revelation  has  been 
thought  to  have  been  copied  from  69,  when  both  were 
in  the  hands  of  Chark.  Certainly  the  margins  of  both 
copies  bear  many  notes  in  his  handwriting,  and  it 
would  have  been  a  strong  temptation  to  have  had  the 
opportunity  of  completing  61  by  adding  the  Revela- 
tion from  so  good  a  source.  As  it  stands,  the  text  of 
this  added  Scripture  is  found  to  be  of  higher  critical 
value  than  any  other  part  of  the  volume. 

The  Codex  Leicestrensis,  69,  belongs  to  the  town 
of  Leicester  in  England,  whence  it  takes  its  name,  and 
is  deposited  in  the  Town  Library,  to  which  it  was 
given  by  a  clergyman  of  the  vicinity,  Thomas  Hayne, 
who  received  it  from  a  fellow  clergyman,  William 
Chark.     It  is  a  folio  volume,  with  leaves  both  of  paper 


UNCIALS,    FRAGMEXTS,    AND   CURSIVES.        139 

and  vellum,  and  the  writing  is  rough  and  so  carelessly 
done  as  to  be  in  many  places  almost  illegible.  The 
leaves  are  so  arranged  as  to  give  two  of  i^archment 
followed  by  three  of  jDaper  in  regular  order.  The 
wi'iting  is  noteworthy  from  having  been  done  with  the 
calamus^  or  reed  pen,  such  as  is  spoken  of  in  St.  John's 
Third  Epistle  (iii.  13),  very  few  of  the  old  manuscripts 
being  written  with  this  instrument  instead  of  the  style. 
The  codex  is  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  is  especial- 
ly valuable  as  being  one  of  the  few  cursives  that  contain 
the  whole  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  also  remark- 
able for  containing  many  readings  varying  from  the 
received  text,  and  scholars  place  it  in  critical  value 
above  the  later  uncials.  The  most  important  colla- 
tions are  those  made  by  Tregelles  and  Scrivener.  It 
is  found  that  this  codex  is  so  closely  similar  to  three 
others.  Codex  13  of  the  Gospels  at  Paris,  Codex  124 
at  Vienna,  and  Codex  846  at  Milan,  that  the  four  must 
have  been  made  from  the  same  original,  the  date  of 
w^hich  was  probably  as  early  as  the  sixth  century. 

Though  many  other  cursives  might  well  be  men- 
tioned, only  one  more  can  here  find  place,  as  again 
illustrating  the  perils  to  which  ignorance  has  sub- 
jected these  ancient  treasures.  It  is  Codex  95  of  the 
Apocalypse,  to  which  is  added  an  epitome  of  a  com- 
mentary upon  the  same  book.  The  story  of  its  dis- 
covery is  given  by  Scrivener  in  his  Lectures,  and  the 
manuscript  was  collated  by  him  in  1855.  It  was  found 
by  Curzon  in  1837  "  on  the  library-floor  at  the  monas- 
tery of  Caracalla  on  Mount  Athos.  He  begged  it 
of  the   abbot,  who  suggested   that  the  vellum-leaves 


140  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

would  be  of  use  to  cover  pickle-jars!"  Thus  was  this 
codex,  which  Tregelles  calls  a  "  special  treasure,"  and 
which  was  regarded  by  him  and  by  Dean  Alford  as 
one  of  the  most  valuable  cursive  manuscripts  of  the 
Revelation,  rescued  to  become  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant literary  possessions  of  Christendom. 


CODEX    ROSSANENSIS. 

Subscription  to  Gospd  of  Maitha.o. 


THE   LATEST   DISCOVERY.  143 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE    LATEST   DISCOVERY. 


The  little  town  of  Rossano,  in  South  Italy,  is  built 
upon  a  rocky  hill,  about  three  miles  from  the  southern 
shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Taranto.  It  was  famous  in  ancient 
times  as  one  of  the  most  impregnable  of  the  strong- 
holds of  the  Romans  against  the  Goths,  sitting  majestic 
upon  the  heights,  with  the  steep  precipices  of  the 
neighborhood  forming  natural  barriers  to  the  approach 
of  foes.  But  in  these  late  days  its  name  has  received 
a  wider  and  more  lasting  fame  from  its  connection 
with  one  of  these  invaluable  Christian  treasures,  which 
it  preserved  from  the  earliest  times,  and  yielded  at  last 
to  the  researches  of  scholars  of  our  own  day.  The 
town  is  still  walled  and  its  castle  remains ;  the  inhab- 
itants, as  of  old,  live  by  their  culture  of  the  grape  and 
olive  and  grains,  and  by  the  fisheries  in  the  neighboring 
gulf.  There  is  little  to  disturb  the  daily  routine  within 
the  boundary  of  the  walls,  and  it  is  chiefly  the  services 
connected  with  the  cathedral-church  which  bring  variety 
to  the  people.  The  entrance  of  two  strangers  into  the 
town  would  hardly  be  noticed,  and  probably  there  was 
very  little  stir  when  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1879  two 
men,  unknown  to  the  quiet  citizens,  came  seeking  the 


144  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

libraries,  and  inquiring  for  any  relics  of  a  monastery, 
about  which  the  people  had  ceased  to  think,  except  as 
the  sight  of  its  ruins  outside  the  town  might  recall 
the  stories  of  its  foundation  and  history. 

Oscar  von  Gebhardt  of  Gottingen  and  Adolph  Har- 
nack  of  Giessen,  both  pursuing  their  journeys  and 
researches  in  the  interest  of  the  Prussian  Cultus-minis- 
terium  and  the  Albrecht  foundation  at  Leipzig  in 
connection  with  the  University,  were  on  their  way  to 
Sicily,  when  they  delayed  a  little  at  Rossano  to  en- 
deavor to  find  any  literary  remains  of  interest  from  the 
library  that  once  existed  in  the  convent.  It  had  been 
said  that  once  there  were  important  writings  of  Dio- 
nysius  of  Alexandria  and  of  Hippolytus  treasured  by 
the  monks  and  not  known  to  exist  in  any  other  copies, 
and  it  was  especially  in  hope  of  getting  some  trace  of 
these  manuscripts,  or  of  discovering  some  works  of  the 
Greek  Fathers,  that  these  two  German  scholars  visited 
the  place.  Their  hope  seemed  especially  well  founded, 
for  it  was  known  that  the  brotherhood  of  Santa  Maria 
de  lo  Patire,  like  the  monks  of  many  other  of  the 
Italian  monasteries  of  the  order  of  St.  Basil,  had  kept 
up  the  use  of  the  Greek  ritual,  and  even  the  Greek 
language  in  prayers  and  writings  until  a  late  period  of 
the  Middle  Ages. 

For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  quest  would  be  wholly 
in  vain.  No  one  knew  of  any  such  treasures  as  they 
sought.  Persons  were  found  who  could  tell  them 
what  they  already  knew  about  the  old  ruins  out  on 
the  olive-shaded  road  to  Corigliano,  and  they  even 
discovered  a  few  printed  volumes  that  once  belonged 


THE    LATEST    DISCOVERY.  145 

to  the  library,  but  which  were  of  dates  so  late  as  the 
eighteenth  century ;  but  of  manuscrij^ts  there  were 
none.  At  last  they  heard  of  a  very  ancient  book  in 
the  possession  of  the  Archbishop.  They  turned  their 
steps  to  the  episcopal  residence.  Monsignor  Pietro 
Cilento  received  them  most  courteously,  confirmed  the 
story  that  had  been  told  them,  and  gave  them  cheerful 
permission  to  see  the  volume.  It  was  laid  before  them, 
a  book  with  a  strong  black  leather  binding,  a  thick 
quarto,  some  old  Latin  Bible,  they  thought,  and  j^os- 
sibly  of  considerable  value.  The  covers  were  opened, 
the  pages  turned.  The  scholars  at  the  first  glance 
wondered,  for  they  saw  what  they  had  not  dared  to 
hope.  A  more  careful  inspection  fastened  conviction 
upon  their  minds,  and  they  gave  themselves  up  to  the 
delight  which  almost  made  them  beside  themselves. 
They  had  found  a  book,  beyond  doubt  one  of  the  most 
valuable  books  in  the  Avorld.  It  was  a  copy  of  the 
Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark,  the  latter 
closing,  however,  with  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
verse  of  the  last  chapter,  to  which  is  added  the  Epistle 
of  Eusebius  to  Carpianus  by  a  later  hand  strongly  re- 
sembling that  of  the  Ztirich  Purple  Psalter,  which 
Tischendorf  assigned  to  the  seventh  century.  It  was 
a  splendid  purple  manuscript,  with  double  columns  of 
silver  text  on  each  page,  the  first  three  lines  of  each 
Gosj^el  being  in  gold.  In  addition  to  these  sumptuous 
leaves,  there  were  a  large  number  of  miniatures  in 
rich  and  still  vivid  colors.  With  the  permission  of  the 
Archbishop  the  delighted  scholars  devoted  weeks  to 
the  study  of  the  volume,  collating  its  text  and  pre- 


146  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

paring  facsimiles  of  the  writing  for  future  publication. 
At  the  same  time  they  secured  tracings  of  many  of  the 
illustrations. 

This  Codex  Rossanensis  has  one  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  leaves  of  vellum,  which  have  been  some- 
what injured  by  binding.  The  letters  are  uncial  and 
very  similar  to  those  of  Codex  N  (p.  127),  the  most 
noteworthy  purple  manuscript  previous  to  this  dis- 
covery. The  double  columns  each  contain  twenty 
lines,  and  there  are  only  from  nine  to  twelve  letters  in 
a  line ;  the  words  are  not  separated ;  there  are  no  ac- 
cents or  breathings ;  there  are  few  erasures,  and  the 
punctuation  is  limited  to  an  occasional  point.  But  the 
Ammonian  Sections  and  the  Eusebian  Canons  are 
marked.  In  a  word  there  are  all  the  evidences  of 
great  antiquity,  and  the  discoverers  place  the  origin  of 
the  codex  in  the  sixth  century,  though  it  is  believed 
by  others,  that  it  may  fall  as  late  as  the  beginning  of 
the  seventh.  It  is  distinguished  by  the  Greek  letter 
Sigma,  ^. 

In  1880  Professors  Gebhardt  and  Harnack,  the  dis- 
coverers of  the  book,  published  a  descriptive  volume 
in  Leipzig,  with  facsimiles  and  miniatures  in  outline 
and  monochrome.  Many  of  these  plates  are  of  ex- 
treme interest,  although  they  do  not  represent  the 
colors  of  the  originals.  The  first  two  are  printed  in 
purple,  and  the  silver  letters  are  reproductions  of  the 
text.  The  first  plate  gives  in  the  middle  of  the  page 
St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  vi.  13,  14,  with  various  literal 
signs  and  peculiarities  of  the  text  around  the  mar- 
gin ;  and  the  second  facsimile  contains  the  subscription 


THE   LATEST   DISCOVERY.  147 

of  the  first  gospel  as  shown  in  the  plate  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  chapter. 

The  plates  in  the  German  volume  are  nineteen  in  num- 
ber, and  show  that  the  miniatures  of  the  original  are  not 
only  striking  pictures  of  the  incidents  of  the  Gospels, 
but  also  that  in  many  cases  they  are  to  be  ranked  among 
the  better  drawings  of  the  earliest  Christian  art.  Not 
many  of  them  can  here  be  described  in  detail,  but  a 
few  hints  may  be  given  to  aid  the  imagination  of  the 
reader.  Plate  V,  for  example,  shows  the  triumphal 
entry  into  Jerusalem.  On  the  extreme  left  are  two 
figures,  and  in  the  boughs  of  a  tree  a  third  person, 
who  is  plucking  the  palm-branches  with  which  to  salute 
the  Christ.  Next,  in  the  left-centre,  is  the  Saviour 
mounted  upon  the  ass;  then  many  peoj^le  are  strew- 
ing their  clothing  in  the  way  and  waving  the  branches, 
while  at  the  extreme  right  is  the  city,  with  children 
issuing  from  the  gateway  to  join  the  throng.  City 
and  tree  and  ass  are  all  nearly  of  the  same  size  and 
are  drawn  with  no  perspective,  yet  the  picture  is  full 
of  life  and  vigor.  Plate  VII  illustrates  the  parable  of 
the  Ten  Virgins,  and  we  see  the  bridegroom  with  the 
five  wise  virgins  upon  the  right,  separated  from  the 
five  foolish  virgins  on  the  left  by  a  simple  door,  which 
stands  alone  without  a  trace  of  walls :  yet  the  idea  is 
perfectly  clear.  Plate  XV  shows  Judas  restoring  the 
silver  to  two  high-priests,  who  sit  beneath  a  canopy 
upon  the  left  and  shrink  back  from  the  money  with 
raised  hands,  and  upon  the  extreme  right  is  the  same 
figure  of  Judas  hanging  from  the  bough  of  n  tree. 
Plate  XI  in  a  similar  manner  shows  two  scenes,  for  at 


148  THE    STOKY   OF   THE   MANUSCEIPTS. 

the  right  is  the  j^rostrate  form  of  Jesus  praying  in  the 
garden,  and  at  the  left  He  is  aAvaking  the  three  dis- 
ciples, while  overhead  in  a  narrow  strip  of  sky  a  few 
stars  are  regularly  disjDOsed  and  the  crescent  moon  is 
shining.  All  the  plates,  which  are  nineteen  in  num- 
ber, are  very  clear,  conveying  their  meaning  readily  to 
any  one  in  the  least  acquainted  with  the  stories  of  the 
gospels.  Plate  XVIII,  from  which  our  illustration  is 
reduced,  gives  an  interesting  grouping  of  four  medal- 
lions representing  the  Evangelists,  each  one  with  a 
volume  upon  the  left  arm  and  with  the  right  hand 
raised,  as  if  in  a  gesture  of  benediction.  In  the  centre 
of  the  arabesque  in  the  original  manuscrij)t  the  ai3pro- 
priate  title  is  written.  Other  miniatures  give  heads 
of  "prophets,"  forty  in  all,  David,  Solomon,  Moses, 
Joshua,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  Micah,  Nahum,  Zechariah, 
Zephaniah,  Malachi,  Sirach,  and  others. 

Where  this  fine  manuscript  was  written,  or  by 
whom,  cannot  be  told.  Whence  it  came  into  the 
possession  of  the  present  owners,  the  Chapter  of 
the  Cathedral,  which  now  consists  of  forty-eight 
members,  not  even  they  can  say.  The  discoverers 
relate  that  the  manuscript  was  seen  and  mentioned 
about  thirty  years  ago  by  a  writer  named  Maljjica, 
of  Nai^les,  but  apparently  a  man  of  so  little  discern- 
ment that  he  described  the  book  as  a  "  history  of  the 
antiquity  of  the  cathedral "  of  Rossano.  The  volume 
remains  where  it  was  found,  and  now  that  its  value 
is  understood,  is  very  jealously  guarded  from  injury 
or  loss.  Indeed  the  regret  is  already  expressed  by 
European  scholars  that  the  discoverers  did  not  publish 


TITLE-PAGE   OF  THE   CODEX    ROSSANENSTS. 


THE   LATEST   DISCOVERY.  149 

a  larger  volume  than  the  one  issued  in  1880,  descrip- 
tive of  the  book  and  giving  a  full  collation  of  the 
text,  for  it  is  now  feared  that  the  opportunity  for  the 
free  study  of  the  original  codex  is  past,  unless  the 
owners  of  it  themselves  prepare  an  edition  for  pub- 
lication. Possibly,  however,  the  German  editors  may 
have  materials  already  in  their  possession  for  a  more 
extensive  edition  in  the  future.  The  Italian  Govern- 
ment has  made  a  fourfold  inventory  of  the  manuscript, 
so  that  no  misfortune  will  be  likely  to  deprive  the 
world  of  a  knowledge  of  its  contents.  As  for  the 
value  of  the  Codex  in  textual  criticism,  it  will  hardly 
find  place  among  the  manuscripts  of  first  rank,  agreeing 
rather  with  the  documents  of  the  fifth  century  than 
w^ith  those  of  the  fourth.  Its  strange  richness  of 
pictorial  illustration,  however,  gives  it  a  peculiar  place, 
for  it  is  the  oldest  pictorial  Gospel  known.  One  of 
the  discoverers  writes  concerning  this  characteristic : — 
"That  obscure  chapter  of  the  history  of  art  which 
treats  of  the  transition  from  the  primitive  Christian 
and  antique  to  the  so-called  Byzantine  art  will,  it  is 
hoped,  receive  some  light  from  the  new  discovery." 


150  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 


/7S. 


uHAPTER  X. 

VERSIONS. 

The  story  of  the  manuscrij^ts  would  be  too  incomplete 
without  at  least  a  brief  reference  to  the  translations  of 
the  sacred  Scriptures  made  in  ancient  times.  As  already- 
intimated,  some  of  these  are  of  the  very  earliest  Chris- 
tian ages,  and  stand  side  by  side  with  many  of  the 
great  uncial  copies  in  importance. 

We  remember  how,  in  the  fourth  century  before 
Christ,  the  victorious  arms  of  Alexander  the  Great 
laid  all  the  Eastern  world  in  submission  at  his  feet. 
Not  only  were  the  arms  of  Alexander  victorious,  but 
the  Greek  lano-uaare  went  with  his  battalions  and  won 
for  itself  a  realm  co-extensive  with  the  kingdom  of  the 
conqueror.  In  connection  with  the  wide  dispersion  of 
the  Jews  and  the  knowledge  of  their  sacred  books, 
wherever  a  colony  of  the  Jews  was  found,  this  general 
use  of  the  Greek  language  gave  occasion  for  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Old  Testament  into  Greek,  in  the  famous 
version  of  the  Septuagint  comj^leted  in  Alexandria 
about  the  year  275  B.  C.  And  when  the  Christ  came 
and  the  new  Scriptures  became  the  possession  of  His 
Church,  the  same  familiarity  with  the  Greek  language 
made  the  composition  of  the  New  Testament  in  that 
tongue  most  natural.     The  Macedonian  Dominion  had 


VERSIONS.  151 

yielded  to  the  Roman  Empire  before  this  was  accomp- 
lished, and  the  advantages  of  a  power  extended  over 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  known  world  were  added  to  the 
marvellous  facilities  of  expression  which  were  given  by 
the  language  of  statesmen  and  orators,  philosophers 
and  poets,  who  have  made  ancient  Greece  famous 
forever.  But  although  the  New  Testament  was  thus 
given  the  freest  access  to  man's  thought,  there  were 
churches  which  had  many  members  who  could  not 
read  the  Greek,  nor  readily  understand  it  in  the 
services  of  their  worship.  In  the  chief  cities  of  Asia 
Minor,  in  the  larger  towns  of  North  Africa,  in  Rome, 
and,  of  course,  in  the  Greek  churches,  the  original 
writings  could  be  used  without  difficulty ;  but  in  places 
further  removed  from  the  centres  of  social,  commercial, 
and  political  life  there  were  multitudes  of  Christians 
who  could  only  receive  the  truth  of  their  Scriptures 
through  translations  into  their  native  speech.  Syi'ia 
must  have  its  version  into  the  ordinary  language  of 
the  people.  Egypt,  where  even  the  bishops  of  many 
of  the  churches  were  acquainted  with  no  language  but 
their  own,  must  have  at  least  two  translations  to  meet 
the  wants  of  the  people  of  Lower  and  Upper  Egypt, 
by  whom  different  dialects  were  spoken,  and  thus  the 
Memphitic  and  the  Thebaic  versions  were  made,  each 
representing  one  of  these  dialects  of  the  Coptic  lan- 
guage. Again,  in  Italy  and  the  Avest  of  Europe  the 
Latin  tongue  prevailed,  and  a  demand  for  versions  into 
that  language  arose,  while  the  more  northern  tribes 
could  only  be  reached  through  a  Gothic  text.  It  will 
readily  be  seen  that  all  these  Bibles  will  be  useful  in 


152  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS . 

showing  the  nature  of  the  originals  from  which  they 
were  made,  and  in  proportion  to  their  age  and  fidelity 
will  be  of  value  in  textual  criticism.  A  few  only  oi 
these  translations  can  be  mentioned  in  these  pages. 

The  Old  Latin  claims  our  first  attention  as  at  once 
perhaps  the  most  ancient,  and  certainly  one  of  the 
most  important  of  all.  We  should  naturally  look  for 
its  origin  to  Italy,  if  not  to  Rome  itself,  but  we  know 
that  it  came  from  the  North  of  Africa,  and  not  even 
from  Alexandria,  whence  so  many  of  the  ancient  Greek 
codices  emanated,  but  from  the  region  of  which  Car- 
thage was  the  centre.  Its  first  use  was  also  probably  in 
this  western  province  of  Africa.  At  the  time  when  it 
was  written,  in  the  second  century,  the  Church  of 
Rome,  to  which  St.  Paul  had  written  his  Epistle  in 
Greek,  still  used  a  Greek  liturgy,  and  was  presided 
over  by  bishops  bearing  Greek  names,  and  who  wrote 
in  that  language.  But  the  Christians  of  Carthage 
spoke  the  Latin ;  and  Tertullian,  who  wrote  at  Carthage 
at  the  close  of  the  second  century,  refers  to  the  gene- 
ral use  of  a  Latin  copy  of  the  'New  Testament  by  the 
churches  of  that  place.  It  has  been  demonstrated, 
however,  especially  through  the  labors  of  Cardinal 
Wiseman,  that  the  extant  manuscripts  of  this  version 
must  have  had  their  original  text  from  this  African 
source,  because  they  contain  so  many  expressions  no 
longer  in  use  in  Rome,  but  wholly  similar  to  those 
found  in  the  writings  of  African  authors,  who  lived 
and  wrote  in  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 
As  time  went  on,  however,  this  Latin  Bible  crossed 
the  sea,  and  a  revised  text  was  in  use  in  Italy  so  early 


VERSIONS.  153 

as  the  fourth  century ;  and  it  is  here,  and  especially  in 
the  northern  portions,  Lombardy  and  Piedmont,  that 
the  richest  relics  have  been  found.  A  manuscript, 
nearly  as  old  as  the  Sinaitic  and  Vatican  codices,  con- 
taining parts  of  the  Gospels  and  known  by  the  sign  a., 
was  discovered  in  1726  at  Yercelli,  and  many  others 
have  been  found  which  unite  their  testimony  for  the 
same  original  text.  They  are  marked,  however,  by  a 
great  variety  of  readings,  and  even  in  the  fourth 
century  the  need  of  a  new  translation  was  evident. 
The  Vulgate  was  the  result  of  this  need.  By  this 
time  the  Roman  Church  itself  had  become  deeply  in- 
terested in  having  the  Scriptures  in  the  Latin  tongue, 
and  Jerome,  whose  fame  as  a  Biblical  scholar  was  as 
great  in  the  west  as  in  the  east,  was  commissioned  to 
prepare  the  desired  version.  The  work  was  begun  at 
Rome  in  383,  and  the  Old  Latin  furnished  the  basis 
for  the  new  text.  It  was  well  understood  that  a  trans- 
lation, wholly  independent  of  the  already  received 
version,  would  be  met  with  strenuous  opposition  from 
the  more  ignorant  portions  of  the  church,  as  sub- 
versive of  the  truth  and  an  injury  to  the  cause  of 
religion,  just  as  every  change  in  the  text  of  the  Eng- 
lish translations  has  been  jealously  watched,  and  made 
the  subject  of  loud  complaint;  and  for  exactly  the 
same  reason,  which  determined  the  Convocation  of 
Canterbury  to  prepare  a  Revision  of  King  James's 
Version,  rather  than  a  new  translation  based  only  uj3on 
the  most  approved  Greek  texts,  the  design  of  Pope 
Damasus  and  Jerome  was  limited  to  a  revision  of  the 
Old  Latin  so  long  in  use.     But  Jerome  was  assigned  a 


154  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

more  difficult  task  even  than  that  which  has  employed 
the  English  and  American  Revision  Committee  of  this 
day,  so  far  as  the  accepted  version  was  concerned,  for 
it  was  hard  to  say  then  what  was  the  correct  reading 
which  should  be  made  the  basis  of  the  work.  "  There 
are  almost  as  many  forms  of  the  text  as  there  are 
copies,"  he  said  to  Damasus.  It  was  found  necessary 
to  have  recourse  to  early  Greek  manuscripts,  and  by 
comparison  of  these  with  the  Old  Latin  the  Vulgate 
was  formed,  very  much  as  the  new  English  edition  of 
the  New  Testament  has  just  now  (May,  1881)  been 
completed.  The  solitary  scholar  of  the  fourth  century, 
however,  toiled  under  great  difficulties.  The  Pope 
under  whose  patronage  the  work  was  begun  died, 
when  it  had  been  in  progress  only  a  year.  Jerome 
left  Rome  and  sought  seclusion  in  the  east,  and  the 
translation  begun  in  Rome  was  completed  in  his  mo- 
nastic cell  in  Bethlehem  in  385.  It  was  only  through 
the  lapse  of  many  years,  however,  that  the  new  work 
attained  a  general  acceptance  with  the  Christians  for 
whom  it  was  prepared,  but  at  last  it  justified  its  name 
as  the  Vulgate,  (  Yulgata  Editid)^  or  Common  Bible, 
and  during  many  centuries  it  has  been  the  received 
Latin  text  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  has 
itself  been  the  basis  of  many  other  translations.  "As 
an  interpretation,"  says  Scrivener,  "the  Vulgate  far 
surpasses  its  prototype ;  as  an  instrument  of  criticism 
it  is  decidedly  superior,  where  the  evidence  of  the 
Old  Latin  may  he  had ;  for  it  does  not,  like  its  prede- 
cessor, bring  before  us  the  testimony,  good  or  bad,  of 
documents  of  the  second  century,  but   only  that  of 


VERSIONS.  155 

manuscripts  which  Jerome  deemed  correct  and  ancient 
at  the  end  of  the  fourth." 

The  Syriac  Versions  form  the  next  group  of  which 
mention  must  be  made.  It  was  in  the  north  of  Syria 
that  the  Aramaean  branch  of  the  great  Semitic  family 
of  languages  was  used.  The  Hebrew,  which  was  once 
spoken  by  the  Jews,  and  in  which  most  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  written,  passed  out  of  use  as 
a  spoken  language  about  six  hundred  years  before  the 
time  of  Christ,  when  the  captivity  in  Babylon  famil- 
iarized the  Jews  with  the  Chaldee  and  the  Syriac,  the 
two  dialects  of  the  Aramaean  spoken  in  the  north. 
When  the  return  of  the  captives  was  effected,  they 
brought  the  language  of  their  conquerors  with  them, 
and  it  remained  the  vernacular  of  the  country  until 
the  Arabic  began  to  displace  it,  and  in  the  thirteenth 
century  it  had  ceased  to  be  spoken.  Its  literary 
remains  are  chiefly  those  of  the  north,  containing  the 
language  as  it  Avas  spoken  and  taught  at  the  famous 
school  of  Edessa.  The  Syriac  versions  of  the  Bible 
are  among  the  most  ancient  remains  of  the  language. 

The  Peshito,  or  the  Simple,  though  not  the  oldest 
text,  has  been  the  longest  known,  and  it  is  of  great 
importance.  It  was  so  called,  possibly,  for  several 
reasons,  the  most  evident  being  in  the  contrast  between 
it  and  the  midrashim,  or  allegorical  interpretations 
of  the  Old  Testament ;  in  this  sense  the  name  would 
be  nearly  equivalent  to  our  words  literal  or  faithful. 
Perhaps  another  reason*  for  the  name  was  found  in  the 
fact,  that  this  text  bore  no  asterisks  and  obeli,  marks 
*  Home's  Introduction,  iv.  259. 


156  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

used  in  some  manuscripts  of  the  Old  Testament  to 
indicate  the  revision  by  Origen,  and  the  margins  were 
free  from  references  to  other  versions.  It  is  in  the 
Old  Syriac,  and  sjDcaks  for  the  Greek  text  of  the 
second  century,  though  its  own  date  is  doubtful. 
Some  scholars  have  placed  it  as  early  as  the  latter  half 
of  the  second  century,  and  some  even  in  the  first 
century,*  while  others  have  somewhat  doubtfully  as- 
signed it  to  so  late  a  period  as  the  fifth.  It  was  long 
believed  to  be  the  version  referred  to  by  Ephraem  the 
Syrian,  who  died  about  378  A.  D.,  but  since  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Curetonian  Syriac,  this  argument  for  its 
origin  before  Ephraem  has  lost  its  force.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  translation  to  which  Ephraem 
refers,  whether  the  Peshito,  or  the  Curetonian  version, 
he  calls  it  our  version^  as  already  adopted  by  the 
churches  of  Syrian  Christians,  and  therefore  already 
in  existence  for  some  considerable  period.  The  Peshito 
^  contains  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments.  All 
the  canonical  books  were  originally  found  in  the  Old 
Testament,  but  from  the  New  Testament  the  second 
and  third  epistles  of  St.  John,  the  second  of  St.  Peter, 
that  of  St.  Jude,  and  the  Revelation  are  wanting. 

It  will  be  evident  to  the  reader  that  this  free,  yet 
exact,  translation,  dating  from  such  an  early  age,  must 
be  of  great  value  in  determining  the  text  from  which 
it  was  made,  and  which  must  have  antedated  it  by  a 
considerable  time.  In  the  case  of  a  jdisputed  passage 
a  reference  to  this  version  would  go  far  toward  settling 
the  question  as  to  what  the  Christians  of  the  earliest 
*  So  Michaelis. 


VERSIONS.  157 

post-apostolic  age  read  in  their  Bibles.  But  as  already 
intimated  the  Peshito  does  not  stand  alone  in  Syriac 
testimony  to  the  earliest  readings  of  the  Scrij^tures. 

The  Cueetonian  Syriac  was  discovered  after  its 
existence  had  been  for  a  long  time  suspected  by  saga- 
cious scholars.  Griesbach  and  others  had  expressed 
the  opinion  that  probably  the  Peshito  was  not  the 
earliest  Syriac  text  used  by  the  churches,  and  in  1848 
Tregelles  suggested  that  when  the  Nitrian  manuscripts 
brought  to  England  the  year  before  should  be  collated, 
traces  of  the  earlier  text  might  be  found  among  them. 
In  his  examination  of  these  documents,  of  which  he 
was  the  custodian.  Dr.  Cureton  had  noticed  a  coj^y  of 
the  Gospels  very  different  from  the  Peshito,  and  it  was 
found  to  be  of  such  a  character  as  to  justify  the  pre- 
viously formed  oj^inions  of  the  critics.  The  manu- 
script, consisting  of  eighty-tAvo  and  a  half  leaves,  was 
carefully  prepared  for  publication,  but  its  appearance 
was  delayed  until  1858,  when  it  was  issued  with  an 
English  translation  by  Dr.  Cureton.  These  leaves 
contain  the  Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  i.  to  viii.  22,  and 
X.  31  to  xxiii.  25 ;  of  St.  Luke  ii.  48  to  iii.  16  ;  vii.  33 
to  XV.  21,  and  xvii.  24  to  xxiv.  44 ;  of  St.  John  i.  1-42, 
,and  iii.  6  to  vii.  37 ;  and  a  few  scattered  verses  of 
the  fourteenth  chapter ;  but  of  St.  Mark  there  are  only 
four  verses,  xvi.  17-20.  In  1871  three  more  leaves 
were  discovered  and  deposited  in  the  Imperial  Library 
in  Berlin,  supplying  in  St.  Luke's  Gospel  xv.  22  to  xvi. 
12;  xvli.  1-23,  and  in  St.  John's  vii.  38  to  viii.  19, 
except  the  verses  vii.  53  to  viii.  12,  containing  the  story 
of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery.     Cureton,  Tregelles, 


158  THE    STORY   OF    THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

Alford,  Ewald,  Bleek,  and  others,  believe  this  text  to 
be  older  than  the  Peshito,  though  others,  and  appar- 
ently Scrivener  *  among  them,  refer  it  to  so  late  a  date 
as  the  fifth  century.  It  bears  a  very  striking  likeness 
to  the  text  of  the  Codex  BezoB,  so  that  it  is  considered 
as  almost  certainly  from  the  same  original  as  that 
famous  coj^y. 

Other  valuable  Syriac  versions  are  the  Philoxenian 
and  its  revision  by  Thomas  Harkel,  and  the  Jeru- 
salem Syriac  Lectionary.  The  former  is  in  the 
later  Syriac,  and  is  called  Philoxenian  from  Philox- 
enus,  bishop  of  Hierapolis  from  A.D.  488  to  518,  under 
whose  patronage  the  work  was  done  in  the  year  508 
by  Polycarp,  his  rural  bishop.  The  version  was  re- 
vised in  616  by  Thomas  of  Harclea,  or  Harkel,  in 
Palestine,  though  the  work  was  done  in  Alexandria. 
The  jDostscript  to  the  Gospels  says :  "  This  is  the  book 
of  the  four  holy  Evangelists,  which  was  turned  out  of 
the  Greek  language  into  Syriac  with  great  diligence 
and  much  labour,  first  in  the  city  of  Mabug  in  the  year 
819  of  Alexander  of  Macedon  (508)  in  the  days  of  the 
pious  Mar  Philoxenus,  confessor,  bishop  of  that  city. 
But  it  was  afterwards  collated  with  great  care  by  me, 
poor  Thomas,  with  the  aid  of  two  highly  approved 
and  accurate  Greek  MSS.  in  Antonia,  of  the  great  city 

*  At  the  close  of  a  full  discussion  of  the  relations  of  the 
Peshito  and  the  Curetonian  Syriac  in  his  Plain  Introduction, 
pp.  281-286,  Scrivener  remarks  of  the  latter:  "On  the  whole, 
then,  fully  admitting  the  critical  value  of  this  newly-discovered 
document,  and  feeling  much  perplexed  when  we  try  to  account 
for  its  origin,  we  see  no  reason  whatever  to  doubt  its  decided 
inferiority  in  every  respect  to  the  primitive  version  still  read 
throughout  the  Churches  of  the  East." 


VERSIONS.  159 

of  Alexandria,  in  the  holy  monastery  of  the  Antonians. 
It  was  again  wi-itten  out  and  collated  in  the  aforesaid 
place  in  the  year  927  of  the  same  Alexander  (616),  in 
the  fourth  indiction.  How  much  toil  and  diligence 
I  spent  upon  it  and  its  companions  the  Lord  only 
knows,  who  will  reward  every  man  according  to  his 
works  in  his  just  and  righteous  judgment,  in  which 
may  we  be  counted  worthy  of  his  mercy.  Amen."* 
"  Poor  Thomas  "  gives  us  another  pathetic  instance  of 
the  relief  so  gladly  reached  after  what  must  have 
seemed  an  almost  interminable  task.  The  Philox- 
enian  version  is  extremely  literal,  and  though  the 
worth  of  the  translation  must  have  been  impaired  on 
this  account,  because  the  Syriac  idioms  are  constantly 
sacrificed  to  the  literal  rendering,  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
this  very  feature  adds  to  its  importance  for  critical 
purposes.  Its  value  is  enhanced  by  marginal  readings, 
which  are  the  same  in  a  large  majority  of  instances 
with  those  found  in  the  more  important  codices  B,  C, 
D,  and  L,  and  many  cursives. 

The  Jerusalem  Syriac,  as  it  is  called,  needs  but 
a  few  words  in  this  place.  It  is  a  service-book  with 
lessons  from  the  Gospels  for  Sundays  and  feast-days 
throughout  the  year.  It  was  written  at  Antioch  in 
1030  in  a  dialect  similar  to  that  in  use  in  Jerusalem, 
and  from  a  Greek  text  of  great  antiquity.  Its  readings 
agree  with  those  of  nearly  all  the  best  codices,  such  as 
B,  C,  D,  L,  and  the  most  important  cursives. 

*  Quoted  by  Davidson  (Bib.  Crit.  632)  as  translated  from  the 
postscript  to  the  Gospels  printed  from  Ridley's  MS.  in  White's 
edition,  vol.  II.  p.  561  et  seq. 


160  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

The  next  great  group  of  translations  to  be  men- 
tioned is  the  African,  in  the  ^thioj^ic  and  Egyptian 
languages.  Ethiopia  was  a  term  applied  with  much 
indefiniteness  by  the  ancients  to  the  region  of  Africa 
lying  south  of  Egypt,  but  in  the  general  acceptation 
of  the  term  by  modern  scholars,  and  with  reference 
to  linguistic  and  ecclesiastical  matters  it  refers  to  the 
Abyssinian  regions,  and  the  ^thiopic  language  has 
now  become  equivalent  simply  to  the  written  language 
of  the  ancient  Abyssinian  Church.  Abyssinia  was  con- 
verted to  Christianity  in  the  fourth  century  under  the 
labors  of  Frumentius  and  ^detius,  who  had  been  sent 
into  the  country  as  slaves,  but  bestowed  the  freedom 
of  the  children  of  God  upon  many  of  its  heathen 
people  through  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  For  the 
Christians  thus  converted  a  translation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures was  made,  possibly  by  Frumentius  himself  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century,  though  it  is 
impossible  to  determine  with  accuracy  either  when,  or 
by  whom,  the  work  was  done.  It  is  far  from  being  of 
high  critical  value,  though  it  was  evidently  made  from 
a  Greek  original. 

Of  much  greater  importance  are  the  Egyptian  trans- 
lations. They  are  called  respectively  the  Memphitic 
Version  and  the  Thebaic  Version",  according  to  the 
parts  of  Egypt  in  the  dialects  of  which  they  are  writ- 
ten. We  know  that  Christianity  had  gained  a  strong 
foothold  in  Egypt  in  the  very  earliest  times.  It  was 
here  that  monasticism  established  itself  most  firmly, 
and  Paul  of  Thebes,  with  his  disciple  Pachomius,  and 
especially  the  great  Antony,  Tvhose  fame  was  estab- 


VERSIONS.  161 

lished  in  Europe  by  his  biography  written  by  Athanar 
sius,  with  many  other  noted  monks  like  Ammonias 
and  Hilarion,  gave  a  very  distinctive  character  to  the 
Egyptian  church,  their  communities  of  anchorites  ex- 
ercising a  strong  influence  even  iipon  the  Christian 
life  in  the  cities,  and  sometimes  even  affecting  the  im- 
l^erial  court  itself  in  far-off  Constantinople.*  The 
Greek  language,  introduced  after  the  conquest  by 
Alexander,  had  laid  hold  upon  the  more  ancient  dia- 
lects of  the  people,  but,  as  was  natural,  more  forcibly 
in  the  northern  parts  of  Egypt,  near  the  court  of  the 
Ptolemies,  than  in  the  south;  and  when  the  Greek 
ceased  to  be  spoken  as  a  separate  tongue  the  differ- 
ences between  the  dialects  of  Upper  Egypt  and  Lower 
Egypt  were  marked.  These  monks  or  anchorites  had 
extended  Christianity  throughout  the  whole  country, 
up  and  down  the  Nile  and  even  to  the  borders  of  the 
Libyan  deserts.  The  Christians  therefore  covered  the 
region  occupied  by  both  of  the  principal  dialects. 
They  could  not  read  the  Greek ;  they  were  not  famil- 
iar with  each  other's  speech  ;  and  yet  they  needed 
the  Scriptures,  that  they  might  understand  the  truth. 
The  monks  were  strictly  trained  in  the  Bible.  A 
rule  of  Pachomius  is  extant,  requiring  the  reading  of 
"the  Scriptures  and  Psalter,"  and  if  the  command 
were  to  be  obeyed  there  must  be  facilities  for  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Bible  in  the  language  of  the  peo- 
ple. At  the  very  earliest  times,  therefore,  there  must 
have  been  translations  from  the  original  Greek,  and 
the  Memphitic  and  Thebaic  versions  give  to  us  their 
*  Guericke,  Church  History  (Ancient  Church,  p.  28G,  §  74). 


162  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

texts.  Very  many  manuscripts  of  the  former  have 
been  discovered,  most  of  them  of  dates  not  earlier  than 
the  tenth  century,  and  yet  Canon  Lightfoot,  through 
whose  labors  they  are  chiefly  known,  considers  them 
of  the  greatest  importance  in  textual  criticism.  "  Of 
all  the  versions,"  he  says,  "the  Memphitic  is  perhaps 
/  the  most  important  for  the  textual  critic,"  and  he 
ranks  the  Thebaic  as  "  only  second  to  the  Memphitic 
in  value."  The  manuscripts  of  the  Thebaic,  which 
have  thus  far  been  discovered,  are  few  and  fragment- 
ary, so  that  "  a  complete  version  of  the  New  Testament 
cannot  be  made  up  from  all  of  them  put  together " 
(Scrivener)  ;  but  they  are  nearly  all  of  high  antiquity. 
The  agreement  of  these  two  versions  with  each  other 
is  in  many  instances  of  special  force,  while  their  testi- 
mony to  the  readings  of  some  of  the  principal  uncials 
is  important.  For  a  long  time  the  Memphitic  was  the 
only  version  known  to  the  critics,  relics  of  the  Thebaic 
coming  to  light  about  a  century  ago  through  the 
labors  of  several  scholars.  A  third  translation  called 
the  Bashmuric,  has  also  transmitted  a  few  fragments 
to  us,  but  it  is  only  a  modification  of  the  Thebaic  for 
the  sake  of  herdsmen  who  lived  in  the  Delta  of  the 
Nile,  and  is  chiefly  useful  to  supply  a  few  passages  in 
which  the  Thebaic  is  defective. 

Other  versions,  the  Gothic  by  which  the  Gospel  was 
given  to  the  tribes  of  northern  Europe,  the  Georgian, 
and  Frankish,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  the  Persian,  and 
Arabic  need  only  the  mention  of  their  names  in  these 
pages,  for  they  are  of  slight  value  for  the  determina- 
tion  of   the   original    text   of    the   New   Testament. 


VERSIONS.  163 

Enough  has  been  sho^vTi  of  the  greater  groups  of 
versions  to  indicate  their  importance  and  to  reveal 
their  relative  positions  with  the  great  Greek  codices 
in  the  criticism  of  the  text.  It  remains  only  to  be  re- 
marked, that  their  testimony  to  their  originals  is  very 
similar  to  that  of  the  references  and  quotations  found 
in  the  writings  of  the  earliest  Christian  authors,  which 
have  always  been  one  of  the  most  valued  sources  of 
knowledge  concerning  the  existence  and  nature  of  the 
apostolic  Scriptures.  Such  quotations,  if  not  exact 
and  literal,  are  in  effect  paraphrases  or  versions  more 
or  less  accurate  of  the  passages  under  discussion, 
bearing  testimony  at  once  in  many  cases  to  their 
authenticity,  their  genuineness  as  part  of  the  recog- 
nized canon,  and  the  true  reading  of  the  Greek  from 
which  the  quotation  is  made.  All  such  witness  is 
secondary  to  that  borne  by  the  Greek  manuscripts 
themselves,  so  far  as  the  text  of  the  originals  is  con- 
cerned, but  wholly  invaluable  in  biblical  study. 


164  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

HOW   AKE    THE    MANUSCRIPTS    USED  ? 

No  attempt  will  be  made  in  this  chapter  either  to 
give  a  full  original  examination  of  passages  whose 
form  in  the  received  text  has  been  disputed,  or  to 
present  in  its  completeness  the  work  of  experts  upon 
the  Scriptures  quoted.  It  will  only  be  sought  to  illus- 
trate the  methods  in  which  the  manuscripts  are  hised, 
without  any  strict  attention  to  the  details  of  argument, 
which  might  obscure,  rather  than  elucidate,  the  subject 
for  all  but  the  most  learned  readers. 

Before  proceeding  to  quotations,  however,  it  will  be 
desirable  to  present  a  statement  of  certain  laws  gener- 
ally observed  in  such  work,  and  here  it  would  mani- 
festly be  useless  to  give  the  whole  code  which  one 
scholar  or  another  has  laid  down  for  his  own  course, 
many  of  the  canons  being  of  such  a  character  as  to  be 
of  little  interest  to  the  general  reader,  who  does  not 
have  the  special  work  of  the  critic  to  do.  Dr.  Samuel 
Davidson,  for  instance,  details  eleven  special  rules  for 
the  guidance  of  criticism  in  the  New  Testament,  some 
of  which  could  hardly  find  place  in  these  pages  without 
elaborate  explanation,  with  application  to  examples. 
But  it  will  be  useful  to  give  a  few  of  the  more  obvious 
canons  recognized  by  scholars  universally  and  brought 


HOW   ARE    THE   MANUSCRIPTS    USED  ?         165 

together  from  lists  given  by  many  of  them.    In  such  an 
enumeration,  the  following  may  be  noted  : — 

Canox  I.  The  more  difficult  and  obscure  reading 
shoidd  he  preferred  to  the  plainer  and  easier  one. 
This  is  the  first  canon  of  the  celebrated  German 
scholar,  Bengel,  and  it  stands  fourth  in  the  list  of 
Davidson.  It  is  reasonable  to  sujdjdosc,  indeed,  that  if 
a  copyist  made  any  change  in  an  original  passage,  thug 
producing  a  false  reading,  it  would  be  in  attempting  to 
throw  light  upon  a  dark  expression,  rather  than  to 
obscure  what  was  before  quite  plain.  For  example, 
some  manuscripts  have  the  words  vnthout  cause  in 
Matt.  V.  22,  while  the  Sinaitic  and  Vatican  manu- 
scripts omit  them.  It  is  more  probable  that  these 
words  were  added  to  explain  what  seemed  a  hard 
statement  to  the  copyist,  than  that  they  were  omitted 
after  having  originally  formed  a  part  of  the  verse, 
since  the  omission  adds  to  the  difficulty  of  expounding 
the  passage  and  justifying  its  statement  as  righteous. 
So,  too,  in  Matt,  xxi,  7  : — they  "brought  the  ass,  and 
the  colt,  and  put  on  them  their  clothes,  and  they  set 
him  upon  them," — some  manuscripts  read  "  upon  him." 
Now,  it  would  manifestly  be  more  natural  for  a  tran- 
scriber to  change  the  word  from  the  plural  to  the 
singular  than  from  the  singular  to  the  plural,  to  get  rid 
of  the  difficulty  of  suj^posing  that  they  set  the  Lord 
upon  both  animals.  According,  to  the  canon,  there- 
fore, the  reading  upon  them  is  most  likely  to  be  the 
original  one,  and  should  be  retained.  The  English 
version,  in  this  instance,  escapes  the  trouble  to  some 
degree  by  translating  the  words  upon  them^  by  thereon. 


166  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

Canon"  II.  The  style  of  each  author  should  he  used 
as  a  test  of  a  varied  reading.  Davidson  gives  this  as 
his  second  rule,  while  in  Scrivener's  j^opular  arrange- 
ment it  stands  third.  Manifestly  it  is  very  important, 
for  an  interpolation  by  a  copyist,  or  any  other  change 
in  the  original  text,  would  be  apt  to  show  a  variation 
from  the  usual  mode  of  expression  in  similar  passages 
by  the  author.  For  example,  in  Matt.  xii.  14,  Lach- 
mann  and  Tischendorf  and  Tregelles,  in  accordance 
with  this  rule,  give  an  order  to  the  Greek  words  dif- 
ferent from  that  in  the  usually  received  text ;  and  in 
Matt.  XX vi.  17,  the  words  to  him  should  be  omitted, 
as  they  are  in  B  and  ^J,  in  accord  with  the  custom  of 
St.  Matthew  in  all  places  where  he  gives  a  similar  nar- 
rative of  what  was  said.  It  is  evident,  however,  that 
this  canon  could  not  be  pressed  in  all  cases,  because, 
as  in  the  instance  just  given,  it  is  certainly  possible 
that  an  author  might  use  an  expression  once  though  he 
had  never  written  it  before. 

Canon  III.  A  reading  is  to  he  regarded  as  the 
original^  from  which  all  the  other  readings  may  he 
naturally  derived^  though  it  itself  could  not  he  derived 
from  any  of  them.  In  James  iii.  12,  the  Codices  A, 
B,  C,  and  >J  read,  "  neither  can  salt  water  yield  fresh," 
instead  of  the  verse  of  our  English  translation,  as 
supported  by  other  manuscripts,  "  so  can  no  fountain 
both  yield  salt  water  and  fresh."  It  is  much  easier  to 
see  how  the  shorter  form  could  be  amplified  into  the 
latter  than  how  the  former  could  be  the  result  of  the 
latter.  A  rule  similar  to  this,  and  of  which  the  ex- 
ample just  given  may  also  be  a  good  illustration,  is 


HOW    ARE    THE    MANUSCRIPTS   USED?         167 

Canon  IV.  The  shorter  reading  is  to  he  preferred 
to  the  longer^  at  least  in  all  cases  ichere  the  latter  seems 
to  be  offered  by  loay  of  explanation  of  the  shorter  form. 
It  is  found  that  in  Mark  vi.  11,  the  words :  "  Yerily  I 
say  unto  you,  It  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah  in  the  day  of  judgment  than  for  that 
city,"  should  be  expunged.  They  are  found  in  some 
good  manuscripts,  but  B  and  J«J  omit  them,  and  they 
are  regarded  as  an  explanatory  addition  to  the  preced- 
ing words. 

Canon  V.  Readings  which  offer  strong  suspicion 
of  having  been  introduced  to  favor  special  opinions 
or  practices  shoidd  yield  to  those  which  are  free  from 
such  suspicion.  A  manuscript  giving  a  reading  in 
favor  of  orthodoxy,  for  instance,  where  others  vary 
from  the  prevalent  belief  when  the  document  was  writ- 
ten, is  open  to  such  suspicion ;  while  such  a  passage  as 
Kev.  xxii.  14,  "  Blessed  are  they  that  do  his  command- 
ments, that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life,"  it 
seems  to  Davidson  and  others,  should  yield  to  the 
reading,  "  Blessed  are  they  who  wash  their  robes,  that 
they  may  have  right,"  &c.,  not  merely  because  the  lat- 
ter is  supported  by  such  ancient  codices  as  the  Alex- 
andrine and  Sinaitic,  but  also  because  the  former  read- 
ing favors  the  asceticism  of  the  early  days  and  the 
monkish  doctrine  that  heaven  may  be  won  by  good 
works. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  that  these  rules  and  all 
others  of  a  similar  character,  are  only  to  be  applied 
as  adjuncts  toother  testimony  of  a  more  decided  nature. 
The  value  of  the  manuscripts  themselves  and  the  pecu- 


168  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

liarities  of  each  are  to  be  well  considered.  "  Context, 
parallels,  historical  circumstances,  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  characteristic  developments  of  sentiment, 
phraseology,  constructions,  use  of  particles,  &c.,  in  each 
particular  writer,"  *  are  to  accompany  the  application 
of  such  rules.  Indeed  they  are  generally  subordinate 
to  external  evidence  and  are  to  be  used  to  turn  the 
scale,  when  such  external  considerations  seem  to  bal- 
ance each  other. 

Turning  now  to  special  examples  of  criticism,  the 
attention  should  be  directed  first  to  the  vast  multitude 
of  passages  in  which  the  corrections  are  so  slight  as  to 
be  of  almost  no  importance.  Were  it  not  for  this 
comparative  little  value  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
variations,  the  devout  student  might  well  be  concerned 
for  the  foundations  of  his  faith,  since,  as  has  already 
been  remarked,  the  whole  number  of  the  various  read- 
ings that  have  been  noted  is  no  less  than  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand.  But  when  it  is  known  that  the 
slight  difference  of  a  single  letter  in  a  word,  which 
does  not  alter  the  sense  of  that  word  in  the  slightest 
degree,  occurs  in  hundreds  of  instances,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  only  wonder  in  the  case  should  be  with  regard 
to  the  extreme  accuracy  with  which  these  manuscripts 
have  been  compared.  As  an  example  of  such  varior 
tions,  the  Vatican  manuscript  always  spells  the  verb  to 
judge  with  a  diphthong  in  the  first  syllable  of  the  Greek 
word,  >tQeiv6iv  instead  of  xqIvsiv.  It  is  but  the  intro- 
duction of  the  single  letter  e,  and  does  not  affect  the 
meaning  in  a  single  passage  ;  and  yet  it  occurs  in  more 

*  Davidson,  Bib.  Crit.  p.  825. 


HOAV    ARE    THE   MANUSCRIPTS    USED?         169 

than  a  hundred  places  in  the  New  Testament,  and  has 
been  marked  as  offering  just  so  many  variations  of  B 
from  other  codices.  The  name  of  the  beloved  disci- 
ple, John,  occurring  more  than  one  hundred  and 
thirty  times,  is  spelled  sometimes  with  one  n,  as  Joanes, 
and  sometimes  with  two,  Joannes.  The  different  ar- 
rangement of  the  words  of  a  sentence,  the  use,  or  the 
lack,  of  the  small  particle  di  or  aV,  the  employment  of 
the  word  Lord  for  God  and  similar  substitutions,  illus- 
trate the  many  unimportant  variations  in  reading, 
which,  however,  the  careful  eye  of  the  critic  has  noted 
in  nearly  every  case.  It  is  unnecessary  to  give  exam- 
ples of  these  readings.  Even  where  they  occur  it  is 
usually  the  case,  that  there  is  no  doubt  concerning  the 
true  form  of  the  original.  Prof.  Arnold  says :  "  At 
least  fifty-nine  out  of  sixty  of  these  various  readings 
may  be  at  once  dismissed  from  the  account,  as  not 
having  sufficiently  respectable  MS.  support  to  entitle 
them  to  any  notice.  There  are  not  more  than  from 
fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  places  in  which  there 
is  any  uncertainty  whatever  as  to  the  true  text  .... 
and  of  this  last  limited  number  only  a  small  fraction 
affect  the  sense  of  Scripture  to  the  ajjprehension  of 
any  but  the  most  critical  reader.  And  of  those  which 
do  perceptibly  affect  the  sense,  there  are  hardly  a 
dozen  of  any  doctrinal  imjDortance."  The  same  testi- 
mony might  be  repeated  from  the  jDages  of  Bentley, 
Davidson,  Tregelles,  Scrivener,  and  many  other  critics 
of  the  first  rank. 

If,  however,  it  should  appear  to  any  that  the  science 
of  Biblical  criticism  and  the  preservation  and  collation 


170  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

of  the  manuscripts  are  reduced  to  little  value  on  this 
account,  two  things  should  be  remembered,  and  it  will 
then  appear  that  the  work  done  in  this  department  of 
learning  is  of  inestimable  value.  First,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind,  that  even  these  trivial  differeyices  m  the 
manuscript  authorities  for  the  Scriptures  could  never 
have  been  known  to  he  such,  without  all  this  care  and 
labor.  This  fact  alone  makes  the  story  of  the  manu- 
scripts of  the  first  importance,  and  calls  for  the  grati- 
tude of  the  Christian  world  toward  the  scholars  who 
have  devoted  their  lives  to  listening  so  attentively  to 
even  the  minutest  details  that  these  ancient  documents 
have  had  to  tell.  And,  second,  these  unimportant  varia- 
tions do  not  complete  the  number  of  discrepancies, 
but  leave  many  passages  of  more  serious  importance, 
though  not  of  such  weight  in  any  case  as  to  invalidate 
doctrine  taught  elsewhere  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  to 
the  consideration  of  a  few  of  these  passages  that  we 
now  turn.  In  adducing  the  evidence  for  certain  read- 
ings many  authorities  are  referred  to  by  their  appro- 
priate symbols,  which  it  has  been  impossible  to  assign 
a  place  in  the  preceding  pages,  or  even  to  name ;  but 
it  is  hoped  that  the  reader  will  not  be  perplexed  by 
such  references,  since  the  only  object  in  offering  these 
examples  of  criticism  is  to  show  the  course  of  argu- 
ment, and  the  general  grounds  upon  which  decisions 
are  reached. 

The  first  passage  that  may  illustrate  the  appeal  to 
the  manuscripts  is  one  of  those  instances  in  which  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  original  ever  had  the  words  con- 
tained in  our  received  text.     It  is  the  doxology,  placed 


HOW   ARE   THE  MANUSCRIPTS  USED?         171 

in  our  English  version  and  in  the  text  of  our  Greek 
Testaments  at  the  close  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  St. 
Matthew's  GosjDel. 

Matt.  vi.  13 :  "  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the 
power,  and  the  glory,  for  ever,  AmenP 

These  words  are  not  found  in  St.  Luke's  Gospel 
(xi.  2-4),  and  the  question  would  perhaps  arise  in  the 
mind  even  of  a  reader  of  the  English,  whether  they 
had  been  dropped  out  of  the  passage  in  the  third 
Gospel  by  some  mistake,  or  whether  they  are  an  un- 
warranted addition  to  the  first  Gospel;  though  it 
would  certainly  be  recognized  as  possible,  that  as  in 
many  another  case  of  parallel  passages  the  really  un- 
important variation  might  have  stood  in  the  original 
writings  themselves.  But  what  do  the  ancient  manu- 
scripts say?  Upon  reference  to  them  it  is  found  that 
the  Codices  K,  B,  and  D,  and  the  palimpsest  Z  omit 
the  words  in  Matthew,  while  A  and  C  bear  no  testi- 
mony, because  they  are  defective  in  this  place.  Codex 
L  of  the  seventh  century  is  the  best  uncial  authority 
in  favor  of  the  words,  though  all  the  later  uncials 
agree  with  L  in  giving  the  j^assage.  The  Queen  of 
the  Cursives,  33,  has  the  words,  and  all  but  a  few  of 
the  cursives  add  their  favorable  testimony.  If  the 
Versions  are  asked  to  bear  witness,  we  find  that  the 
principal  copies  of  the  Old  Latin,  and  the  Vulgate, 
are  without  the  passage,  but  all  the  Syriac  versions, 
most  of  the  copies  of  both  the  Egyptian  versions,  a 
few  Old  Latin  codices,  the  ^thioj^ic,  Armenian,  and 
several  other  less  important  translations,  have  it.  In 
some  of  these  affirmative  manuscripts,  however,  there 


172  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

seems  to  be  a  significant  hesitancy,  for  a  part  of  the 
doxology  is  cut  out  by  one,  and  another  part  by 
another.  The  Curetonian  Syriac,  for  example,  omits 
"  and  the  power ; "  the  Thebaic  omits  "  and  the  glory ; " 
and  the  Old  Latin  ^,  "the  kingdom  and  the  glory." 
Very  significant  is  the  silence  of  Origen  (230)  and 
Cyi'il  of  Jerusalem  (350),  both  giving  a  thorough  ex- 
position of  the  prayer  but  without  mentioning  this 
clause.  But  Chrysostom  (398)  includes  it,  without 
any  remark  as  to  its  doubtfulness,  in  his  comments. 
Other  evidence  might  be  adduced  but  without  altering 
the  balance  of  the  argument.  What  is  that  balance  ? 
We  have  found  that  the  greatest  uncial  authority  is 
decidedly  in  favor  of  omitting  the  words,  Avith  only 
later  uncials  and  the  cursives  against  it.  The  Versions 
have  been  found,  perhaps  pretty  evenly  divided,  with 
the  evidence,  however,  in  some  of  the  best  afiirmative 
cases  of  a  hesitating  character.  Origen  and  Cyril 
have  refused  their  support:  Chrysostom,  somewhat 
later,  has  given  his  voice  for  the  passage.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  Canon  V,  quoted  on  page  167,  de- 
cides against  doubtful  passages  which  are  suspected  of 
having  been  introduced  in  accordance  with  known 
prejudices,  and  it  is  in  this  case  certain,  that  the 
liturgies  in  use  among  Christians  at  a  very  early  date 
made  frequent  employment  of  doxologies  almost 
identical  with  the  words  in  question,  and  the  conclu- 
sion seems  most  natural,  that  from  such  outside  sources 
they  may  have  become  attached  to  the  words  of  the 
prayer  and  finally  been  incorporated  in  the  text.  Even 
with  the  limited  discussion  thus  given  we  cannot  be 


HOW   ARE   THE   MANUSCEIPTS   USED?         173 

surprised  when  we  find  the  doxology  omitted  by 
nearly  all  the  great  editors,  among  whom  Lachmann, 
Tischendorf,  Tregelles,  Davidson,  Scrivener,  Alford, 
and  many  German  and  English  scholars  of  our  own 
day  are  conspicuous. 

Another  passage  may  illustrate  how  that,  which  was 
probably  a  mere  annotation  in  the  margin  at  first,  will 
sometimes  become  interpolated  into  the  text  and 
remain  there  perhaps  for  centuries,  accepted  by  all 
readers  as  an  integral  part  of  it.     It  is  :  — 

Matt,  xxvii.  35 :  "  That  it  might  he  fulfilled  which 
loas  spoken  hy  the  prophet^  they  parted  my  garments 
among  them.,  and  upon  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots.'''' 

These  words  are  found  substantially  in  John  xix.  24, 
and  the  passage  from  which  the  words  were  taken 
("in  order  that  the  Scripture  might  be  fulfilled")  is 
the  Messianic  Psalm  xxii.  18.  Not  a  single  uncial 
manuscript  previous  to  the  Sangallensis,  ^  of  the  ninth 
century,  has  the  words  in  Matthew.  A,  B,  D,  E,  F,  G. 
H,  K,  L,  M,  S,  U,  V,  declare  against  them  by  their 
omission ;  all  the  cursives  but  ten  also  omit  them ;  a 
number  of  the  evangelistaria  are  without  them;  the 
Peshito  has  them  only  as  an  interpolation  by  a  late 
editor,  and  all  the  Syriac  codices  reject  them,  except 
the  Philoxenian  text,  though  even  here  a  marginal 
note  is  against  them ;  they  are  not  in  the  Arabic  of 
the  Polyglot,  the  Memphitic,  the  Thebaic,  ^thiopic, 
or  Slavonic;  and  Origen,  Chrysostom,  Augustine, 
Hilary,  Titus  of  Bostra,  Theophylact,  and  other 
'authors  and  commentators  make  no  mention  of  them. 
Against  this  great  array  of  testimony  for  omission  the 


174  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

argument  in  support  seems  very  weak.  As  already- 
said,  Codex  ^  of  the  ninth  century  has  the  words. 
Many  cursives  too  contain  them,  from  one  of  which, 
Codex  1,  used  by  Erasmus  at  Basle  ih  the  preparation 
of  his  New  Testament  in  1516,  the  passage  crept  into 
the  published  text.  The  manuscripts  of  the  Vulgate 
generally  omit  it,  though  the  Codex  Amiatinus  has  it, 
and  the  various  translations  made  from  the  Yuls^ate 
preserve  it.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Canon  II. 
(page  166)  demands  a  consideration  for  the  style  of 
the  writer,  and  Scholz  calls  attention  to  the  fact,  that 
Matthew  alone  uses  the  formula  2va  nlrjQwd-^  to  QrjOiv 
C'^that  the  icord  that  was  spoken  might  be  fulfilled'''')^ 
while  one  Latin  version  seems  to  indicate  that  the 
Greek  from  which  it  was  made  had  8idi  instead  of  inb 
("  through  the  prophet "  instead  of  "  hy  the  prophet ") 
which  is  also  conformable  to  Matthew's  custom.  But 
when  all  is  said  that  can  be  urged  in  favor  of  retain- 
ing the  words,  it  is  evident  that  the  negative  testimony 
is  overwhelming,  and  all  the  great  editors  stand  to- 
gether in  the  rejection  of  the  passage.  The  probability 
is  patent  to  every  one,  that  the  words  of  the  parallel 
passage  in  John  xix.  24  were  first  written  in  the  margin 
of  Matthew  opposite  the  verse,  whence  they  were  re- 
moved by  some  copyist  to  the  body  of  the  text  itself. 

The  two  examples  thus  given  are  passages  which 
are  detected  as  never  forming  a  part  of  the  original 
text,  and  therefore  to  be  rejected.  A  third  may  be 
added  which  has  arisen  out  of  a  doubtful  position  into 
one  of  comparative  certainty  as  a  genuine  part  of  the 
original  text.     It  is:  — 


HOW   ARE   THE   MANUSCRIPTS    USED?  175 

Luke  xxii.  43,  44.  "And  there  a^ppeared  an 
angel  unto  him  from  heaven^  strengthe7iing  him,. 
And  being  in  an  agony  he  prayed  more  earnestly^ 
and  his  siceat  was  as  it  icere  great  drojys  of  blood 
falling  down  to  the  ground^  The  great  critic  Lach- 
mann  included  the  words  in  parentheses,  as  doubt- 
ful, and  others  have  agreed  with  him ;  but  in  later 
days  further  evidence  has  been  brought  to  light,  nota- 
bly the  Sinaitic  manuscript  J<)  which  has  changed  the 
verdict.  It  was  found  that  A,  B,  R,  T,  among  uncials, 
were  without  the  w^ords,  a  few  important  cursives 
omitted  them,  one  Old  Latin  f,  and  most  of  the  Mem- 
phitic.  Thebaic,  and  Armenian  versions,  while  Hilary 
and  Jerome  unite  in  saying  that  many  Greek  and 
Latin  manuscripts  want  the  passage,  so  that  even  so 
early  as  these  fathers  it  was  suspected.  But  on  the 
affirmative  side  are  N,  D,  L,  Q,  and  the  cursive  1,  all 
the  Syi'iac  versions,  most  of  the  Old  Latin,  the  Vul- 
gate, the  ^thio2:)ic,  and  several  codices  of  the  Egyp- 
tian translations.  It  is  remarked,  too,  that  even  in 
A,  which  omits  verses  43  and  44,  the  Ammonian  sec- 
tion and  Eusebian  canon  are  placed  at  the  end  of  verse 
42,  wholly  improperly,  showing  that  the  copyist  prob- 
ably knew  of  the  omitted  passage.  To  these  points 
Scrivener  *  adds  the  testimony  of  Lectionaries,  which 
transfer  the  verses  to  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  (xxvi. 
39),  giving  indirect  support  to  them  as  a  part  of  the 
text,  and,  as  against  the  Fathers  mentioned  above, 
Justin  Martyr,  Irenaeus,  Hippolytus,  Dionysius  of 
Alexandria,  Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  Chrysostom,  and 

*  Six  Lectures,  p.  151. 


176  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

others  are  named.  It  seems,  therefore,  that  the  evi- 
dence in  favor  of  the  retention  of  the  passage  is  em- 
phatic ;  and  the  beautiful  verses,  which  have  no  parallel 
passage  in  the  other  Gospels,  still  present  their  picture 
of  the  agony  in  the  garden  without  any  dark  clouds  of 
doubt  to  obscure  it  and  so  lessen  its  precious  value  to 
the  church. 

It  is  by  similar  processes  of  appeal  to  these  ancient 
documents  that  the  story  of  the  woman  taken  in  adul- 
tery (John  vii.  53  to  viii.  11),  is  expunged  from  the 
Greek  text  by  many  editors,  while  all  agree,  almost 
without  exception,  that  the  famous  passage  of  The 
Three  Witnesses  (1  John  v.  7,  8)  should  also  be  omit- 
ted. The  close  of  Mark,  however,  which  Tischendorf 
believes  must  have  been  written  by  a  later  hand,  from 
the  ninth  verse  to  the  end.  Scrivener  and  others  retain 
as  i^robably  a  j^art  of  the  original  text.  Perhaps  these 
instances  have  been  enough  to  show  the  general  method 
of  criticism  employed,  though  there  has  been  no  at- 
tempt to  expose  the  nicer  points  which  the  experts  in 
this  line  of  study  can  alone  appreciate  and  decide. 
But  there  is  a  single  passage  that  may  be  quoted  in 
addition,  as  a  marked  instance  of  the  way  in  which  a 
great  question  may  sometimes  turn  upon  a  very  slight 
difference  in  the  text,  and  which  may  illustrate  the 
demand  for  extreme  skill  upon  the  part  of  critics  as 
well  as  the  possibility  of  an  honest  difference  of 
opinion  as  the  result  of  their  labors.     It  is :  — 

1  Timothy  iii.  16 :  '■'■And  without  coniroversi/  great 
is  the  mystery  of  godliness  ;  God  loas  manifest  in  the 
fleshy  justified  in  the  sinrit^  seen  of  angels^  jyreaGhed 


HOW   ARE   THE   MANUSCRIPTS   USED?  177 

unto  the  Gentiles^  believed  07i  in  the  icorld^  received  up 
into  glory r 

The  question  is  :  Does  the  verse  read  God  was  man- 
ifest, or  who  was  manifest,  or  which  was  manifest? 
The  Greek  expression  is  very  nearly  the  same  in  either 
case.  If  the  word  God  were  written  in  full  it  would  be 
QBOC^  but  it  was  the  custom  to  abbreviate  the  names 
of  the  Deity  in  these  manuscripts,  the  contraction 
being  indicated  by  a  line  drawn  over  the  letters  thus 
brought  together.  This  word  would  then  be  written 
©C,  with  the  omission  of  the  two  middle  letters.  It 
happens,  however,  that  the  Greek  relative  pronoun 
who  is  written  OC^  and  the  neuter  is  O.  It  is  evident, 
therefore,  that  only  the  disapj^earance  of  the  fine  lines 
in  the  first  word,  the  one  drawn  over  the  letters  and 
the  other  drawn  in  the  first  letter  to  change  it  from 
O  to  0  (from  0  to  th)  would  be  necessary  to  give  us 
the  masculine  pronoun,  while  on  the  other  hand  these 
slight  marks  could  be  added  to  the  masculine  pro- 
noun to  give  the  name  of  the  Deity.  As  for  the  neu- 
ter pronoun  O,  it  is  found  to  have  so  little  authority 
that  it  need  not  be  considered  further  in  this  brief 
statement.  But  &0  and  OC  have  much  in  their  favor. 
The  Codex  A,  at  j^resent,  has  the  former,  but  the  hori- 
zontal lines  are  the  addition  of  a  later  hand  in  heavy 
strokes  and  ink  of  a  different  color  from  that  of  the 
text.  This  only  throws  the  question  back  to  the  time 
previous  to  the  addition.  Were  the  marks  there  be- 
fore, and  these  coarse  lines  drawn  over  them,  or  not  ? 
Evidently  there  is  room  for  the  greatest  skill  and  the 
most  honest  doubt  in  such  a  case.     Accordingly  the 


178  THE    STOKY    OF   THE   MANUSCEIPTS. 

greatest  critics  have  been  unable  to  feel  wholly  certain 
as  to  the  testimony  of  A,  and  the  same  is  also  to  be 
said  of  C.  As  for  Codex  B,  it  will  be  remembered 
(p.  69)  that  the  Epistles  to  Timothy  are  wanting. 
The  Sinaitic  manuscript,  however,  is  not  doubtful. 
Its  text  has  the  pronoun  OC^  who,  but  the  corrector 
has  added  above  the  line  the  two  Greek  letters  de^ 
thereby  suggesting  the  other  reading  without  tamper- 
ing with  the  text  itself.  A  few  later  uncials,  and  a 
very  large  number  of  cursives,  read  "  God."  The  tes- 
timony of  the  Fathers  is  generally  in  favor  of  this 
reading.  The  preponderance  of  opinion  among  editors 
is  upon  the  side  of  the  reading  "  who."  Dr.  Davidson 
says :  "  We  believe  a  fair  case  to  be  made  out,  as  far 
as  the  present  state  of  the  evidence  warrants,  in  favor 
of  og  (who).  But  the  general  sense  is  not  materially 
different,  whether  we  read  og,  o,  or  0eog.  The  mean- 
ing is  much  the  same,  whichever  be  adopted.  Hence 
we  cannot  enter  into  the  reasons  of  such  as  believe  the 
text  to  be  very  important  in  a  theological  view.  It  is 
by  no  means  decisive  either  for  or  against  the  proper 
divinity  of  Christ."  With  these  words  we  may  leave 
the  passage,  since  it  was  referred  to  not  for  the  pres- 
entation of  a  full  discussion,  but  only  as  illustrative  of 
the  difficulties  often  raised  by  very  slight  differences 
in  the  text. 

Such  are  only  two  or  three  of  the  great  number  of 
passages  in  which  the  discovery  and  use  of  ancient 
manuscripts  have  been  of  great  value  in  determining 
the  true  text  of  the  New  Testament.  To  have  at- 
tempted to  present  more  would   have  been   entirely 


HOW   ARE    THE   MANUSCRIPTS    USED?  179 

beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  work,  and  even  the 
incomplete  discussions  of  the  last  few  pages  could  not 
have  been  extended  without  exceeding  the  purposes 
of  the  chapter.  It  has  been  sufficient  to  give  a  general 
idea  of  the  apj^lication  of  the  ancient  materials  and  of 
a  few  of  the  broader  principles  of  criticism  to  the 
Received  Text  by  which  a  correct  reading  of  the  New 
Testament  is  secured. 


180  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE     GREAT    CRITICS. 

The  list  of  the  great  scholars  who  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  department  of  sacred  learning  with 
which  the  subject  of  the^e  pages  is  connected,  is  a  long 
one, — ^far  too  long  for  us  to  do  more  than  sketch  the 
lives  of  a  few,  who  in  modern  times  have  contributed 
much  to  our  knowledge  of  the  sacred  text. 

"  Agmen  ducit  Carolus  Lachmannui''  writes  Scriv- 
ener in  the  preface  to  his  Greek  New  Testament,  when 
he  turns  away  from  the  earlier  editors  to  speak  of  the 
men  of  the  later  era  of  criticism,  whose  readings  he 
quotes  upon  the  margin  of  his  pages.  Karl  Lachmanx 
does  indeed  lead  the  whole  comjDany  of  modern  schol- 
ars in  this  department  of  study,  for,  as  it  has  already 
been  remarked,  he  was  the  first  to  proclaim  freedom 
from  the  received  text,  and  to  demand  not  only  the 
right,  but  the  necessity  of  going  back  to  the  text  indi- 
cated by  the  most  ancient  and  authoritative  documents 
themselves.  He  was  born  at  Brunswick,  in  Germany, 
March  4,  1793,  and  received  his  education  at  the  uni- 
versities of  Leipzig  and  Gottingen,  and  at  the  latter 
place  he  founded  a  philological  society  in  connection 
with  Schulze  and  Bunsen.  Philological  pursuits  were 
his  choice,  and  he  at  once  devoted  himself  to  his 
favorite  studies  with  such  zeal  that  he  soon  won  dis- 


THE    GREAT    CRITICS.  181 

tinction  and  advanced  to  the  first  rank  among  critical 
scholars.  After  a  short  military  service  in  the  struggle 
against  Napoleon  by  the  Allies,  from  1813  to  1815,  he 
returned  to  his  books,  and  was  appointed  Professor 
Extraordinary  at  Konigsberg  in  1818  and  at  Berlin  in 
1825.  His  residence  at  Berlin  proved  to  be  for  life ; 
he  became  Ordinary  Professor  in  1828,  and  was  honored 
by  admission  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  in  1830. 
From  the  year  1816  to  the  year  of  his  death,  1851,  his 
literary  labors  were  incessant,  and  he  published  many 
valuable  editions  of  Greek  and  Latin  and  German 
classics.  His  greatest  work,  however,  was  that  which 
places  his  name  among  those  of  Biblical  scholars.  In 
1831  his  edition  of  the  Greek  New  Testament  appeared. 
The  readings  for  this  work  were  determined  by  refer- 
ence to  the  oldest  Greek  codices  which  he  could  obtain, 
and  also  to  the  quotations  of  the  Greek  Fathers,  with 
the  frequent  use  of  the  Earliest  Latin  when  the  Greek 
readiness  were  discordant.  A  second  edition  made 
more  use  of  the  Latin.  His  work  was  based  upon 
comparatively  few  manuscripts,  but  its  great  value 
is  recognized  even  to-day.  The  plan  of  his  work, 
however,  was  perhaps  of  even  greater  importance 
than  its  results  in  his  text  itself.  He  was  a  gen- 
eral, who  marked  out  a  new  campaign  that  was  des- 
tined to  be  most  successful.  His  part,  according  to  his 
own  conception  of  it,  was  that  of  a  pioneer,  and  those 
who  have  followed  in  his  footsteps,  however  great  they 
have  been  themselves,  have  owed  much  to  his  boldness 
in  laying  open  the  new  path.  Lachmann  died  on  the 
thirteenth  of  March,  1851. 


182  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCEIPTS. 

LoBEGOTT  Friedeich  Constantin  Tischendorf  was 
born  January  18,  1815,  in  Lengenfeld,  Germany,  the 
ninth  child  of  his  parents,  who  named  him  Lobegott, 
or  Praise-God,  with  especial  thankfulness  that  a  strange 
fear  of  the  mother,  that  her  babe  would  be  born  blind, 
had  not  come  true.  The  child  was  destined  to  have 
such  a  remarkably  keen  sight  as  to  enable  him  to  see 
in  many  instances  what  no  others  could  detect.  He 
was  instructed  first  in  the  common  school  at  Lengen- 
feld, whence  he  went  to  the  gymnasium  at  Plauen  to 
prepare  for  the  university.  In  1834  he  entered  upon 
his  studies  at  Leipzig,  where  he  remained  until  gradu- 
ation. His  great  career  may  be  said  to  have  had  its 
beginning  even  while  he  was  a  student  at  Leipzig. 
Here  he  gained  a  prize  medal  for  an  essay  on  "  The 
Doctrine  of  the  Apostle  Paul  as  to  the  Value  of 
Christ's  Death  as  a  Satisfaction."  The  essay  was 
published  in  1837,  and  brought  the  writer  prominently 
before  the  public.  Already  the  preferences  of  his  mind 
for  Biblical  studies  were  evident.  Attempts  in  other 
directions,  however,  were  to  form  a  lighter  prelude  to 
the  stronger  work  of  his  life.  At  Christmas  in  1837 
he  printed  a  volume  of  poems,  "  Maiknospen,"  or 
"  May  Buds,"  and  two  years  afterwards  a  novel,  "  Der 
junge  Mystiker,"  "  The  Young  Mystic,"  which  he  pub- 
lished under  the  pseudonym  of  Dr.  Fritz.  A  little 
time  was  spent  in  teaching  after  his  graduation,  but 
he  soon  went  back  to  Leipzig  with  the  express  design 
of  preparing  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament. 

Professor  Kahnis,  in  a  retrospect  of  the  life  of  Tisch- 
endorf,  notes  that  the  day  on  which  the  distinguished 


THE   GREAT   CRITICS.  183 

scholar  was  born  was  named  Felicitas  in  the  calendar, 
and  certainly  it  seems  as  if  the  happiest  fortune  ruled 
over  his  career  from  the  moment  of  his  earliest  devo- 
tion to  Biblical  pursuits.  His  pre-eminent  abilities  and 
untiring  energy  met  with  a  multitude  of  circumstances 
to  favor  their  application.  One  exception,  however, 
must  be  made.  He  was  poor.  It  was  with  the  utmost 
difficulty,  particularly  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  career, 
that  he  could  obtain  sufficient  means  to  prosecute  his 
studies  and  at  the  same  time  support  life.  But  he  did 
not  allow  his  poverty  to  divert  him  from  his  purpose, 
and  he  pushed  onward,  with  the  utmost  boldness, 
where  many  a  man  would  have  been  appalled  by  a 
lack  of  resources.  In  1840  he  published  an  essay  on 
Matt.  xix.  16,  and  a  dissertation  in  which  he  attacked 
the  principles  of  criticism  that  had  been  advocated  by 
Scholz,  an  eminent  scholar,  whose  preference  had  been 
given  to  manuscripts  of  the  later  rather  than  the 
earlier  dates.  This  work  attracted  much  attention  by 
its  ability.  In  1841  the  first  edition  of  his  Greek 
Testament  appeared  at  Leipzig.  Now  came  the  time 
for  his  researches  among  the  manuscripts  themselves, 
and  by  great  exertions  he  was  enabled  to  raise  money 
enough  to  begin  his  journeys  among  the  libraries  of 
Europe.  A  grant  of  one  hundred  thalers  for  two  suc- 
cessive years  from  the  government  of  Saxony,  and  a 
loan  effected  upon  the  security  of  his  life-insurance 
policy,  enabled  him  to  set  out  for  Paris  in  1840,  "so 
poor,"  however,  "  that  he  could  not  pay  for  the  cloak 
that  he  wore."  At  Paris  he  began  work  at  once  upon 
the  Ephraem  palimpsest,  as  described  upon  a  previous 


184  THE    STORY   OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

page.  Then  followed  the  collation  and  publication  of 
many  other  manuscripts,  and  through  many  years  a 
steady  stream  of  publications,  which  cannot  be  men- 
tioned in  detail,  gave  proof  of  his  wonderful  genius 
and  diligence.  The  mere  enumeration  of  his  books 
and  essays  would  occupy  many  of  these  pages.  Eight 
years  in  all  were  occupied  by  journeys  in  Europe 
and  the  East,  searchmg  the  libraries  of  monasteries  and 
churches  for  their  hidden  treasures.  In  the  intervals 
of  these  travels  he  would  return  to  Leipzig  and  toil 
with  almost  fabulous  endurance  upon  the  many  works, 
which  his  active  mind  had  conceived  during  his  ab- 
sence, or  which  grew  out  of  labors  previously  under- 
taken. The  deciphering  of  manuscripts,  the  publication 
of  facsimiles,  performing  his  official  duties  in  the  uni- 
versity, the  writing  of  essays  of  almost  every  kind  for 
periodicals,  now  and  then  a  popular  book  like  his 
"  Journeys  in  the  East,"  or  his  "  When  were  our  Gos- 
pels written?"  —  the  successive  editions  of  his  New 
Testament  until  the  eighth  critica  tnajor  was  almost 
completed  jDrevious  to  his  death,  twenty-two  editions 
in  all  of  his  New  Testament,  —  such  labors  as  these 
filled  up  the  years,  leaving  hardly  any  space  for  rest 
in  all  his  over-burdened  life. 

The  great  scholar  was  not  without  many  delights, 
however,  which  came  to  him  both  in  the  fact  of  his 
successes  themselves,  and  in  the  honors  that  were 
heaped  upon  him  in  consequence  of  them.  His  joy  in 
the  discovery  of  the  Sinaitic  manuscript  can  hardly 
be  imagined,  and  to  his  enthusiastic  disposition  every 
triumph  of  his  long  labors  must  have  brought  a  more 


THE    GREAT    CRITICS.  185 

than  ordinary  exultation.  A  great  number  of  friends 
gave  him  the  pleasure  always  arising  from  contact 
with  those  highly  endowed  in  intellect  or  having  the 
advantages  of  j^ower.  And  in  addition  to  these  things 
honors  were  bestowed  upon  him  which  rarely  fall  to 
the  lot  of  even  the  most  distinguished  students.  He 
was  early  the  recipient  of  academic  dignities.  At  the 
University  of  Leipzig  he  was  made  Privat-docent  in 
1840,  Extraordinary  Professor  in  1845,  Ordinary  Hon- 
orary Professor  in  1851,  and  Ordinary  Professor  of 
Theology  in  1859.  The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws 
was  conferred  on  him  by  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
and  that  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Law  by  the  University  of 
Oxford.  A  great  many  societies  elected  him  to  hon- 
orary membership.  "  His  titles  fill  half  a  jDage,"  wrote 
one  of  his  critics,  rather  spitefully.  Monarchs  deco- 
rated him  with  orders  of  knighthood.  He  was  made 
Privy-Councillor  by  the  King  of  Saxony.  And  in  1869 
an  imperial  ukase  gave  him  the  rank  of  an  hereditary 
noble  of  the  Russian  Empire.  This  honor  was  recog- 
nized in  Germany,  and  he  was  known  by  his  country- 
men as  Constantin  von  Tischendorf.  Li  speaking  of 
these  rewards  of  his  eminent  service.  Professor  Ezra 
Abbot  remarks  that  "freedom  from  vanity  was  not  his 
most  conspicuous  virtue,  and  it  may  be  that  he  valued 
somewhat  too  highly  such  titles  and  distinctions ;  but 
who  shall  say  that  he  did  not  richly  deserve  them 
all?" 

In  his  will,  written  in  1863,  Tischendorf  himself 
wrote :  "  God  has  bestowed  on  me  a  happy  life,  richly 
adorned  by  his  blessing.     Trouble  and  toil  it  has  been, 


186  THE    STORY    OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

but  it  was  to  me  in  truth  precious.  May  God  put  His 
blessing  also  on  that  which  I  leave  to  posterity:  it  is 
His  own  work.  My  hand  has  served  only  Him,  ac- 
cording to  my  best  knowledge  and  conviction,  even 
though  in  all  weakness.  In  science  I  pursued  no  other 
aim  than  the  truth ;  to  it  I  have  unconditionally  bowed 
the  knee;  I  never  subordinated  my  conviction  to  ap- 
plause on  the  right   hand  or  the   left I  have 

purposed  and  sought  only  that  which  serves  truth 
and  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord."  * 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  his  labors  that  he  was  stricken 
down  by  apoj^lexy  on  the  fifth  of  May,  1873.  For 
more  than  a  year  he  lingered  with  his  family,  and  was 
cheered  by  the  greetings  that  came  to  him  from  his 
many  friends  near  and  far.  Death  came  upon  tie 
seventh  of  December,  1874,  and  he  who  was  at  once 
a  great  scholar  and  a  simple-hearted  Christian,  went 
away  to  receive  his  honors  from  his  Lord. 

A  distinguished  American  scholar,  resident  in  Leip- 
zig, and  at  present  intrusted  with  important  work  con- 
nected with  Tischendorfs  labors,  Dr.  Caspar  Rene 
Gregory,  writes  thus:  "If  greatness  consists  in  the 
unwearying  pursuit  of  one  idea,  Tischendorf  was 
great.  If  greatness  consists  in  persistent  and  success- 
ful application  to  the  study  of  difficult  things,  Tisch- 
endorf was  great.  If  greatness  consists  in  surmounting 
hindrances  and  prejudices,  scholastic,  religious,  and 
national,  Tischendorf  was  great.     If  greatness  consists 

*  From  a  Retrospect  of  the  Life  of  Tischendorf,  by  Dr.  K.  F. 
A.  Kahnis,  translated  from  the  German  by  George  H.  Whitte- 
more,  Baptist  Quarterly,  July,  1876. 


THE    GREAT    CRITICS.  187 

in  the  acquaintance  with  the  use  of,  and  the  turning 
to  general  advantage  of,  the  chief  literary  treasures  of 
Europe  and  the  nearer  East,  Tischendorf  was  great. 
If  greatness  consists  in  earning  the  gratitude  of  the 
scholars  of  all  lands,  Tischendorf  was  great.  And  if 
greatness  consists  in  a  participation  alike  in  the  favor 
of  prince  and  scholar,  of  state  and  of  church,  Tischen- 
dorf was  great." 

Very  different  in  its  quiet  and  retired  course  was 
the  life  of  the  great  English  critic,  Samuel  Pride aux 
Tregelles.  Born  only  two  years  earlier  and  dying 
only  four  months  later  than  Tischendorf,  his  labors 
covered  almost  exactly  the  same  period  as  those  of  the 
great  German.  Tregelles  was  born  at  Falmouth,  Eng- 
land, on  the  thirtieth  of  January,  1813.  His  father,  a 
merchant,  and  his  mother  were  members  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Friends,  and  the  child  was  reared  amid  the 
quiet  scenes  of  the  Quaker  community.  In  maturer 
life  he  did  not  adhere  closely  to  the  faith  and  practices 
of  the  religious  J^ody  to  which  his  parents  belonged, 
but  at  one  time  shared  the  views  of  the  Plymouth 
Brethren,  and  afterwards  worshipped  with  the  Pres- 
byterians. His  education  was  that  of  the  Falmouth 
Classical  School,  surely  not  so  extended  as  to  warrant 
the  supposition  that  he  would  ever  become  so  famous 
as  a  scholar.  After  his  school-days  were  over  he  was 
for  six  years  in  the  iron-works  at  Neath  Abbey,  and  in 
1835  found  more  congenial  occupation  in  the  duties  of 
a  private  tutor  at  Falmouth.  From  this  time  his 
genius  for  the  pursuits  of  a  scholar  was  rapidly  devel- 


188  THE    STORY   OF    THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 

oped.  He  ai^plied  himself  with  ardor  to  the  study  of 
the  Oriental  languages,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five 
he  had  already  determined  to  prepare  a  critical  edition 
of  the  Greek  New  Testament.  To  accomplish  this  work 
was  henceforth  the  great  aim  of  his  life.  Three 
journeys  to  the  Continent  were  made,  in  order  to  study 
the  principal  manuscripts  at  Paris  and  other  places. 
He  collated  many  uncial  and  cursive  codices,  render- 
ing thus  an  important  service  to  Biblical  scholarship, 
but  he  edited  only  one,  the  Codex  Zacynthius,  a 
palimpsest  of  great  value,  containing  a  large  part  of 
the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke.  Several  works  of  much  merit 
appeared  from  his  pen,  in  addition  to  these  labors, 
among  which  were  an  "  Account  of  the  Printed  Text 
of  the  Greek  New  Testament,  with  Remarks  on  its 
Revision  upon  Critical  Principles,"  and  his  "Introduc- 
tion to  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament," 
printed  as  the  fourth  volume  of  Home's  Introduction. 
But  his  life-work,  the  edition  of  the  New  Testament 
itself,  stands  at  the  head  of  the  list  in  importance.  It 
was  issued  in  parts,  the  first  of  wkich  appeared  in 
1857  and  the  last  in  1872,  only  three  years  before  his 
death. 

It  is  sad  to  contrast  the  circumstances  under  which 
Tregelles  labored,  with  those  which  surrounded  Tisch- 
endorf.  We  have  seen  how  the  latter's  poverty  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career  gave  place  to  comparative  ease 
and  comfort  in  his  work,  as  the  assistance  of  great  and 
powerful  friends  was  brought  to  him.  Tregelles  on 
the  other  hand  was  sick  and  poor  always.  Lord  Palni- 
erston  placed  his  name  on  the  Civil  List  in  1862,  with 


THE    GREAT    CEITICS.  189 

a  grant  of  £100  a  year,  which  was  doubled  by  Mr. 
Gladstone  in  1870 ;  but  this  was  the  only  substantial 
recognition  of  his  services  by  the  country  which  he 
adorned.  Honors  did  not  cluster  around  him  as  about 
his  German  cotem23orary.  The  University  of  St.  An- 
drew's gave  him  its  highest  literary  degree,  making 
him  Doctor  of  Laws,  —  but  the  example  of  this  Scot- 
tish University  Avas  not  followed  by  the  English  insti- 
tutions of  similar  grade.  He  was  not  a  University 
man !  His  severe  and  long  continued  labors  increased 
the  natural  weakness  of  his  frame.  His  eye-sight, 
never  very  strong,  grew  dim  in  his  later  years  and 
wholly  failed  him  a  considerable  time  before  his  death, 
making  all  literary  toil  impossible  except  the  comple- 
tion of  his  New  Testament.  Even  at  an  early  day 
after  the  publication  of  the  first  part  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, a  stroke  of  paralysis  disabled  him.  And  so 
all  through  his  many  and  successful  labors,  illness  and 
straitened  circumstances  made  his  task  peculiarly  diffi- 
cult, and  it  was  only  by  the  most  patient  devotion  that 
it  was  finally  accomplished.  He  died  at  Plymouth  on 
the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  1875. 

Tregelles  has  been  assigned  by  some  scholars  a  place 
between  Lachmann  and  Tischendorf  in  the  character 
of  his  work,  and,  according  to  his  own  descriptions  of 
it,  his  text  is  based  at  once  upon  a  wider  range  of  evi- 
dence than  Lachmann's,  and  a  narrower  principle  of 
investiocation  than  Tischendorf  s,  in  that  the  latter  did 
/  not  so  strictly  adhere  to  the  very  ancient  evidence  of 
manuscripts  and  versions  and  the  Fathers  as  Tregelles 
did.     The  English  scholar  has  indeed  been  severely 


190  THE   STOKY   OF   THE   MANUSCEIPTS. 

criticized  for  ignoring  some  sources  of  information  em- 
ployed by  the  great  Germans  and  others,  but  the  most 
able  judges  have  agreed  in  placing  the  text  of  his  New 
Testament  as  among  the  best,  and  appealing  to  it  as 
freely  as  to  the  work  of  Lachmann  or  Tischendorf. 
The  results  of  the  life-work  of  Tregelles  are  indeed  to 
be  regarded  as  of  priceless  value  to  Christendom. 

Many  honored  names  must  be  passed  in  silence  in 
these  pages,  or  with  the  mere  reverential  utterance  of 
their  syllables,  as  the  eminent  services  of  the  scholars 
press  upon  us  for  recognition.  Dean  Alford,  and 
Canon  Westcott,  and  Dr.  F.  J.  A.  Hort,  — the  two  latter 
still  toiling  together  upon  an  edition  of  the  Greek 
Testament,  which  has  been  eagerly  expected  during 
many  years  by  all  Biblical  scholars,  —  and  a  few  emi- 
nent Americans,  with  Dr.  Ezra  Abbot  of  Cambridge 
at  their  head,  have  bestowed  a  wealth  of  service  upon 
the  lovers  of  Truth  in  their  labors  upon  the  text  of  the 
Scriptures.  But  there  is  yet  one  name  that  stands 
pre-eminent  over  those  of  living  students  in  this 
department  of  learning  which  must  receive  fuller 
mention.  It  is  the  name  so  often  written  in  these 
pages,  that  of 

Fkedekick  Henry  Ambrose  Scrivener.  He  was 
born  at  Bermondsey,  England,  September  29,  1813, 
and  completed  his  academic  studies  at  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  in  1835.  It  will  be  noted  that  his  birth 
occurred  in  the  same  year  as  that  of  Tregelles,  and  so 
very  near  to  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Tischendorf,  —  so 
richly  was  our  age  to  be  supplied  with  these  devoted 
searchers  after  the  Truth.     Scrivener  was  employed 


THE    GREAT   CRITICS.  191 

for  several  years  after  his  graduation  as  a  teacher  in 
classical  schools,  and  such  labors  have  always  been 
congenial  to  his  tastes.  He  was  first  an  assistant  mas- 
ter of  the  king's  school  at  Sherborne ;  in  1839  he  be- 
came curate  of  Sandford  Orcas  in  Somerset;  ip  1846 
he  was  made  head-master  of  Falmouth  School,  and  in 
Falmouth  from  1846  to  1861,  besides  holding  this  posi- 
tion he  had  charge  of  one  of  the  churches;  in  1861  he 
was  made  rector  of  St.  Gerrans  in  Cornwall,  where  he 
continued  to  reside  until  within  a  short  time.  He  is 
now  in  London,  N.  W.,  Hendon  Vicarage,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  labors  which  have  hitherto  been 
somewhat  impeded  by  occupations  not  specially  lucra^ 
tive,  and  at  places  remote  from  the  centres  of  learning, 
may  now  be  pursued  with  the  more  ease  and  with 
greater  benefits  to  the  scholar  himself.  With  what- 
soever increased  advantages  the  great  critic  may  now 
be  surrounded,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  hope  that  the 
successes  of  his  toil  will  be  much  greater  for  the  world 
than  they  have  already  been.  His  Plain  Introduction 
to  the  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament  is  considered 
by  eminent  judges  to  be  the  best  now  in  existence, 
and  his  collations  of  manuscripts,  especially  of  those 
deposited  in  England,  are  most  valuable.  A  '-'•N'ovuin 
Testamentwn  Grmciim^'*  published  in  1860  and  in  a 
second  edition  in  1867,  with  the  text  of  Stephens  and 
the  various  readings  of  Beza,  Lachmann,  Tischendorf, 
Tregelles,  and  others,  has  found  a  wide  acceptance. 
Many  other  valuable  publications  have  issued  from  his 
pen,  and  doubtless  the  world  has  yet  many  a  treasure 
awaiting  it  in  his  skilled  and  generous  hand.    It  is 


192  THE    STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

gratifying  to  know  that  the  English  government,  as  in 
the  case  of  Tregelles,  has  also  recognized  the  labors  of 
this  scholar,  and  in  1872  granted  him  a  pension  in 
"recognition  of  his  services  in  connection  with  Bibli- 
cal crjticism."  Dr.  Scrivener  has  been  an  ardent 
chamjDion  of  the  claims  of  the  cursive  manuscripts, 
and  his  attitude  toward  the  Received  Text  has  always 
been  conservative. 


CONCLUSION.  193 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Dr.  Tregelles,  at  the  close  of  the  introductory  note 
to  the  last  part  of  his  New  Testament,  wrote  as  fol- 
lows :  —  "It  is  with  exceeding  satisfaction  and  thank- 
fulness that  I  am  able  to  put  the  last  part  of  my 
Greek  Testament  into  the  hands  of  subscribers,  thereby 
finishing  my  responsibility  in  connection  with  so  much 
of  God's  Word,  a  work  which  has  only  deepened  my 
apprehension  of  its  divine  authority." 

It  is  a  conclusion  that  is  a  logical  result  of  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures;  and  in  no  department  of  Biblical 
research  does  that  result  follow  more  surely  than  in 
the  work  of  the  critic  of  the  text.  On  the  one  hand 
a  godless  skepticism  may  assail  the  Bible,  as  a  mere 
human  production,  full  of  faults  and  quite  unworthy 
of  belief ;  on  the  other,  a  blind  bigotry  may  demand 
for  it  even  in  its  most  imperfect  translations  a  worship 
which  may  well  be  called  idolatry:  but  the  calm 
student  steps  between  the  contending  factions  and 
simply  asks :  "  What  is  the  Bible  ?  "  Through  many 
years  of  patient  study,  in  which  the  testimony  of  the 
ages  is  gathered  up  and  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
question,  he  pursues  his  task  until  the  very  sources  of 
Christianity  are  reached,  and  at  the  close  of  his  quest 


194  THE   STORY   OF   THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

and  as  the  result  of  a  life's  work  he  exclaims :  "  The 
apprehension  has  grown  into  a  certainty  —  the  Scrip- 
tures are  the  Word  of  God  and  of  divine  authority !" 
He  has  traced  the  river  back  to  the  hillside  spring  and 
has  seen  the  water  welling  up  from  deeps  unapproach- 
able. And  the  reasonable,  the  inevitable  conclusion  is 
that  which  he  has  written.  Speculation  has  no  province 
here.  What  are  facts?  The  utmost  reverence  can- 
not stop  with  a  mere  assertion  that  the  translation  so 
beloved  in  our  English  tongue  is  the  perfect  expression 
of  what  was  first  written.  The  boldest  opposition  on 
the  other  hand  dare  not  deny,  merely  upon  the  basis 
of  what  is  confessedly  imperfect.  From  every  side 
arises  the  serious  demand  for  rohat  was  really  said  by 
Prophet  and  Apostle.  As  in  the  wilderness  of  old  all 
the  warfare  between  Satan  and  the  Christ  began  and 
ended  with  the  words:  It  stands  written, — so  here 
the  appeal  is  to  the  real  Scripture,  and  he  only  will 
win  the  day  in  the  interest  of  truth,  who  follows  that 
first  Conqueror  and  quotes  truly  what  God  has  said. 
The  one  end  and  aim  of  all  criticism  is  to  find  what 
was  written.  And  every  step  of  the  way,  which  has 
brought  the  investigator  near  to  the  beginnings  of 
Christianity  has  only  revealed  the  more  fully,  that  in 
that  first  time  men  wrote  as  they  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  The  autographs  are  gone.  The  truth 
once  given  to  men,  they  were  to  care  for  it  as  for  any 
other  treasure.  The  supreme  value  of  this  blessing, 
however,  the  very  nature  of  the  gift  itself,  as  well  as 
the  over-watching  influence  of  the  Holy  One,  led  the 
happy  possessors  to  take  extraordinary  means  for  its 


CONCLUSION.  195 

preservation.  No  other  writings  of  all  the  world  have 
ever  found  such  exceeding  care.  Yet  the  copies  of 
the  originals  must,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  have 
errors.  Copies  of  copies  might  correct,  or  increase, 
these  faults.  But  with  all  opportunities  for  mistake, 
with  all  the  casualties  incident  to  the  passage  of 
centuries,  the  one  great  fact  remains^  that  by  some 
means,  let  us  say  by  the  Divine  Care  and  the  human 
effort  combined,  we  are  able  to  speak  of  The  Word  of 
God  to-day  with  a  certainty,  a  definiteness,  which  can 
be  applied  to  no  other  writing  whatsoever.  The 
Christian  does  not  hide  in  haunts  of  ignorance.  Sci- 
ence shows,  that  we  Jcnoic,  by  all  evidence  that  can  be 
desired,  what  was  taught  by  the  mouth  of  the  Lord's 
Apostles.  And  if  in  a  few  instances  the  question  is 
not  yet  fully  settled  as  to  the  exact  words  which  the 
first  manuscripts  must  have  contained,  it  is  nevertheless 
true,  that  in  the  vast  majority  of  the  places  that  have 
ever  been  considered  doubtful,  a  degree  of  certainty 
has  been  attained  upon  which  the  most  cajDtious  critic 
ought  to  rest. 

But  more  than  this :  the  study  of  the  ancient 
sources  of  knowledge  concerning  the  text  of  the  New 
Testament  has  demonstrated,  that  even  the  current 
translations  in  the  English  language  are  wholly  trust- 
worthy for  all  Christian  doctrine.  Dr.  Davidson 
writes:  "No  new  doctrines  have  been  elicited.  Critics, 
with  all  their  research,  have  not  been  able  to  show 
that  the  common  text  (the  Textus  Receptus,  from 
which  the  current  English  version  is  made),  varies 
essentially  from  what  they  now  recommend  as  coming 


196  THE    STORY   OF  THE   MANUSCRIPTS. 

nearest  to  its  earliest  form.  We  may  boldly  challenge 
the   opponent   of  the   Bible  to   show  that  the  book 

has  been  materially  corrupted Let  the  illiterate 

reader  of  the  New  Testament  take  comfort  by  learning 
that  the  received  text  to  which  he  is  accustomed  is 
substantially  the  same  as  that  which  men  of  the  great- 
est learning,  the  most  unwearied  research,  and  the 
severest  studies,  have  found  in  a  prodigious  heaj)  of 
documents."  And  the  great  English  scholar,  Bentley, 
in  a  discourse  often  quoted,  says:  "The  real  text  of 
the  sacred  writers  does  not  now  lie  in  any  MS.  or 
edition,  but  is  dispersed  in  them  all.  'Tis  competently 
exact,  indeed,  in  the  worst  MSS.  now  extant ;  nor  is 
one  article  of  faith,  or  moral  precept,  either  perverted 
or  lost  in  them ;  choose  as  awkwardly  as  you  will, 
choose  the  worst,  by  design,  out  of  the  whole  lump  of 

readings even   put  them  into  the  hands  of  a 

knave  or  fool,  and  yet  with  the  most  sinistrous  and 
absurd  choice  he  shall  not  extinguish  the  light  of  any 
one  chapter,  nor  so  disguise  Christianity  but  that  every 
feature  of  it  will  still  be  the  same."  It  will  be  easy, 
perhaps,  for  opponents  of  the  Bible  to  offer  an  un- 
studious  criticism  against  its  statements  here  or  there; 
but  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  all  the  great  scholars 
whose  lives  have  been  devoted  to  textual  research  and 
whose  names  have  been  rendered  forever  famous  by 
their  labors,  are  unanimous  in  their  reverence  for  its 
truth ;  while  their  very  labors  themselves  are  a  testi- 
mony to  their  convictions  of  the  supreme  value  of  the 
original  Word.  They  show  us  the  wonder  that  our 
text  is   so  correct,   considering  the  antiquity  of   the 


CONCLUSION.  197 

documents,  and  they  express  unhesitatingly  their  faith 
that  the  Bible  was  never  made  merely  by  man,  but 
that  God  was  its  Insj^irer,  and  that  it  sjDeaks  for  Him. 
Their  work  has  been  most  important.  The  Church  is 
the  stronger  to-day  because  the  strength  of  her  bul- 
warks has  been  proved  to  her.  The  most  ancient 
Scriptures,  the  most  modern  criticism,  have  united  to 
show  her,  that  now  with  a  firmer  faith  than  ever  be- 
fore, she  may  face  her  foes  with  the  unfailing  weapon : 

"It  is  written." 


198  THE    STORY   OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 


APPENDIX. 


List  op  the  Uncials  of  the  New  Testament. 


FOURTH   century. 

Sinaiticus,  Sign  K,  described  page  97.    The  only  uncial  of 

the  New  Testament  entire. 
Vaticanus  1209,  Sign  B,  described  page  67. 

fifth  century. 

Alexandrinus,  Sign  A,  described  page  58. 

Ephraemi,  Sign  C,  described  page  101. 

Guelpherbytanus,  Sign  Q,  described  page  116. 

BoRGiANUS,  I.,  Sign  T,  at  Rome,  in  two  fragments,  T  and 
T^'oi,  containing  parts  of  Luke  and  John.  The  two  parts 
have  been  reckoned  as  one  MS.  though  they  really  be- 
long to  separate  codices. 

Tischendorfianus  II.,  Sign  I,  at  St.  Petersburg,  three 
fragments,  1,  2,  3,  containing  verses  from  Matt.,  Mark, 
John,  Acts,  1  Cor.,  and  Titus. 

MuSEi  Britannici,  Sign  I^  at  London,  fragments  of  John's 
Gospel. 

MS.  without  name.  Sign  Qp,  at  St.  Petersburg,  parts  of  1 
Cor.  i.  vi.  vii. 

sixth   CENTURY. 

Bezae,  Sign  D,  described  page  117. 

Guelpherbytanus  A.,  Sign  P,  contains  486  verses  from 
Gospels. 


APrEXDix.  199 

NiTRlENSiS,   Sign   R,   London,   fragments  of   Luke.      See 

page  111. 
DuBLiNENSiS,  Sign  Z,  at  Dublin,  290  verses  of  Matt.     See 

page  114. 
Laudianus,  Sign  E^  at  Oxford,  Acts  almost  entire.     See 

page  126. 
Claromontanus,  Sign  D^,  Paris,  Paul's  Ej)istles  except  22 

verses.     See  page  124. 
CoiSLiNiANUS,  Sign  H^,  in  five  parts  deposited  at  Paris,  St. 

Petersburg,  Moscow,  and  Mount  Athos.      See  page  132. 
TisCHENDORFiANUS  IL,  Sign  I,  at  St.  Petersburg,  fragments 

4  and  5,  containing  verses  of  Matt.,  Luke,  and  John. 
MS.  without  name.  Sign  T,  at  St.  Petersburg,  two  parts  T" 

and  T%  a  few  verses  of  Matt,  and  John. 
MS.  without  name,  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  five  parts.  Signs 
0b,  0,  e.  f.  g,  containing  portions  of  Matt.,  Mark,  and  John. 
MS.  without  name.  Sign  O^,  at  St.  Petersburg,  one  double 

leaf  containing  2  Cor.  i.  20-ii.  12. 
MS.  loithout  name.  Sign  Ob,  at  Moscow,  Eph.  iv.  1-18.  with 

omissions. 
PuRPUREUS,  Sign  N,  at  London,  Rome,  Vienna,  and  Patmos, 

containing  parts  of  the  Gospels.     See  page  128. 
ROSSANENSIS,  Sign  2,  described  page  145. 

SEVENTH   CENTURY. 

TISCHENDORFIANUS  L,  Sign  0%  Leipzig,  fragments  of  Matt. 

CoiSLiNiANUS  L,  Sign  F%  at  Paris,  small  fragments  from 
Gospels  and  Epistles.  Not  one  has  more  than  two  con- 
secutive verses. 

TISCHENDORFIANUS  IL,  Sign  I,  at  St.  Petersburg,  fragments 
^  6  and  7,  a  few  verses  from  Acts. 

MS.  without  name.  Sign  T**,  at  Rome,  parts  of  Matt.,  Mark, 
and  John. 

MS.  without  name.  Sign  G*,  at  St.  Petersburg,  Acts  ii.  45  - 
iii.  8. 

Crtptoferratensis  Z.  §.  1.,  Sign  R^  at  Monastery  of 
Grotta  Fen-ata;  2  Cor.  xi.  9-19. 


200  THE    STORY    OF   THE    MANUSCRIPTS. 


EIGHTH   CENTUKY. 

Basiliensis,  Sign  E,  at  Basle;  the  four  Gospels  with  a  few 
omissions  in  Luke. 

Regius,  Sign  L,  at  Paris ;  the  Gospels  with  omissions. 

Zacynthius,  Sign  r,  at  London ;  parts  of  Luke. 

Vaticanus  2066,  Sign  B^  at  Rome ;  the  Revelation  entire. 

Barberini,  Sign  Y,  at  Rome;  six  leaves  containing  137 
verses  of  Jolin 

Regius  314,  Sign  W%  at  Paris ;  Luke  ix.  34-37 ;  x.  12-22. 

MS.  without  7iame,  Sign  W^  at  Najjles;  fragments  of  Matt., 
Mark,  and  Luke. 

MS.  without  name.  Sign  W°;  three  leaves  containing  Mark 
ii.  8-16,  Luke  i.  20-32,  64-79. 

MoSQUENSis,  Sign  V,  at  Moscow ;  larger  part  of  four  Gos- 
pels to  Jolm  vii.  39. 

MS.  without  name.  Sign  0^  at  St.  Petersburg ;  Luke  xi.  37-41, 
42-45. 

Vaticanus  9671,  Sign  R*,  at  Rome;  parts  of  Acts. 

NINTH  CENTURY. 

Rheno  Trajectinus,  Sign  F,  at  Utrecht;  Matt.  ix.  1,  to  John 

xiii.  34,  with  many  omissions. 
Cyprius,  Sign  K,  at  Paris ;  Gospels  entire. 
Campianus,  Sign  M,  at  Paris ;  Gospels  entire. 
MoNACENSis,  Sign  X,  at  Munich;  Gospels  "with  serious 

defects." 
TisCHENDORFiANUS  IV.,  Sign  r,  at  Oxford  and  St.  Peters- 
burg; Gospels  except  215  verses  from  Matt,  and  Mark. 
Sangallensis,  Sign  A,  at  Monastery  of  St.  Gall ;  Gospels 

except  John  xix.  17-35. 
BoERNERiANUS,  Sign  G^,  at  Dresden ;  Epistles  of  Paul,  with 

breaks. 
AuGiENSiS,  Sign  F^,  at  Cambridge ;  Epistle  of  Paul,  with 

breaks. 
TISCHENDORFIANUS  III.,  Sign  A,  at  Oxford ;  Luke  and  John, 

and  subscription  to  Mark, 


APPENDIX.  201 

Petropolitanus,  Sign  77,  at  St.  Petersburg;  Gospels,  Avith 

defects. 
PoRFiRiANUS,  Sign  P"^^^,  at  St.  Petersburg;  Acts,  Epistles, 

Revelation,  with  defects. 
WoLFii  B.,  Sign  H,  at  Hamburg;  Gospels,  with  defects. 
MuTiNENSis,  Sign  IP,  at  Modena ;  the  Acts  with  defects. 
BiBLiOTii.  Anglic.e,  a.  2,  15,  Sign  L*^  at  Rome ;  part  of 

Acts  and  Epistles. 
MoSQUENSis  S.  S.  98,  Sign  K^^,  at  Moscow;  Ei^stles  with 

defects. 
Ruber,  Sign  M^,  at  Hamburg  and  London ;  parts  of  Heb. 

and  1  and  2  Cor. 
MoSQUEXSis,  120,  Sign  O,  at  Moscow ;  seventeen  verses  of 

Jolin. 
MS.  without  name.  Sign  W^  at  Cambridge;  j^arts  of  Mark. 
MS.  without  name.  Sign  W%  at  Oxford ;  John  iv.  9-14. 
MS.  without  name.   Sign   Q^,  at  St.   Petersburg;  nineteen 

verses  of  Matt. 

TENTH  CENTURY. 

Harleianus,  Sign  G,  at  London  and  Cambridge;  Gospels 

with  omissions. 
Vaticanus  354,  Sign  S,  at  Rome ;  Gospels  entire. 
Nanianus,  Sign  U,  at  Venice ;  Gospels  entire. 
Sangermanensis,  Sign  E^  at  St.  Petersburg;  Epistles  of 

Paul,  with  omissions. 

Note.  —  For  more  detailed  descriptions  of  these  Uncials  see  the 
Tables  prepared  under  Dr.  E.  Abbot's  revision  in  Mitchell's  Critical 
Handbook,  and  an  article  by  Di-.  Frederic  Gardiner  in  the  Bibliotheca 
Sacra,  April,  1875,  with  an  accompanying-  diagram,  —  from  whicli  the 
above  list  is  compiled.  Of  special  value  is  the  list  in  Dr.  F.  H.  Scriv- 
ener's Plain  Introduction. 


I]^DEX. 


Abbot,  Ezra,  10, 185, 190. 

Abitina,  17. 

Abyssinia,  160. 

Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,  60. 

Adrets,  118. 

^detius,  160. 

Alfred,  X. 

^Ifric,  X. 

Aldhelm,  x. 

Alexander,  150,  161. 

Alexander  II,  96. 

Alexander  of  Jerusalem,  28. 

Alexandria,  29,  52,  85, 150,  152,  158. 

Alford,  73, 140,  158,  173,  190. 

Allix,  101,102. 

Ammonian  Sections,  42,  61,  98,  105, 

119,  146. 
Ammonius,  42,  161. 
Anglo-Saxon  Translations,  ix. 
Antioch,  15St. 
Antonelli,  73,  76. 
Antony,  160,  161. 
Aramaean,  155. 
Arnold,  A.  N.,  45, 169. 
Atbanasius,  161. 
Athos,  Mt.,  29,  59,  99,  131,  139. 
Augustine,  173. 
Austin,  59. 
Authorized  Version.     See  English 

Bible. 
Aymout,  J.,  125. 

Babylon,  155. 

Barnabas,  Epistle  of,  7,  94,  98. 

Barrett,  114,  115. 

Bartolocci,  71. 

Bashmuric.    See  Version. 

Basil,  St.,  144. 

Basle,  xxiii,  53,  133. 

Beaumont,  Francis,  118. 

Bede,  x, 

Bengel,  165. 

Beutley,  54,  71,  102,  169,  196. 

Bessarion,  68. 


Bethlehem,  154. 

Beza,  xxiv,  53,  117,  118, 121, 124,  171. 

191. 
Bible,  superior  to  other  Scriptures, 
2,7. 

Divine-Human,  4. 

first  printed,  35. 

how  written,  5. 

inspired,  6,  18. 

trustAvorthy,  19,  ' 

See  English  Bible. 
Biblical  Criticism,  14,  51,  54. 

canons  of,  165  sq. 

examples  of,  171  sq. 

sources  of,  16. 

value  of,  170, 193. 
Bibliolatry,  3. 
Birch,  70. 
Blanchini,  70. 
Bleekj  158. 

Bodleian  Library,  xi,  45,  56,  60. 
Bologna,  122. 
Books,  ancient,  23  sq.,  form  of,  24, 

25;  materials,  25;  valued,  30. 
Bradshaw,  131. 

British  Museum,  24,  58,  112, 114, 128. 
Buddha,  3. 
Bunsen,  180. 
Burdett-Coutts,  32. 

Caedmon,  x. 

Calabria,  29. 

Calamus,  139. 

Calligrapher,  27. 

Cambridge,  xi,  xiv,   xix,  117,   118, 

131. 
Canon,  6,  7,  12,  13. 
Canterbury,    Convocation    of,  xxv, 

153;    Protest   to  Archbishop  of, 

xxviii. 
Capperonier,  103. 
Carthage,  52,  152. 
Chark,  W.,  138. 
Charles  I,  58,  66. 


INDEX. 


203 


Chrysostom,  59,  131, 172, 173, 175. 

Cilento,  145. 
Classics,  heathen,  21. 
Clement  XI,  lit.    . 
Clement  of  Kome,  7.  59. 
Clement,  T.,  138. 
Clermont,  121,  122. 
Codex,  4G. 

Alexandrinus,  58,  68,  69,  104, 

167,  171. 
/?',  121,  123. 

Bezse,  43, 117, 118, 158, 159,  171. 
Borgianus,  131. 
Carolinus.  116. 
Claromoutanus,  124. 
Cbislinianus,  132. 
Cursive  1,  133. 
"     13,  139. 
"    33,  136,  171. 
"    61,  137. 
"     69,  138. 
"     95,  139. 
"  124,  139. 
"  346,  139. 
Dublinensis,  114,  171. 
Ephraemi,  50,  79,  104,  115,  159, 

171,  183. 
Friderico-Augustanus,  91,  92. 
Guelpherbytanus,  116. 
Laudianus,  43,  126. 
lieicestrensis,  138. 
Montfortianus,  137. 
Mosquensis,  131. 
Nitriensis,  113. 
Pui'pureus,  127. 
Regius,  127,  159,  171. 
Ruber,  130. 

Rossanensis,  29,  38,  48,  146. 
Sangallensis,  173. 
Sinaiticus,  xxiv,  38,  39,  58,  69, 
75,78,79,88,97,105,  111,  118, 
153,  165,  167,  171,  175,  184. 
Vaticanus,  xxiv,  39,  58,  61,  67, 
75,  88,  98,  105,  114,  117,  127, 
153,    159,    165,   167,  168,   169, 
171. 
WJ,  131, 

Zacyuthius,  188. 
Coligni,  li7, 
Colinseus,  53. 
Communion,  xxvli. 
Complutum,  53. 

Complutensian  Text,  xvii,  xxlii,  53. 
Conde,  117. 
Confucius,  1,  3. 
Constantine,  28,  84,  85. 
Constantinople,  28,  29. 
Constantius,  99. 
Copyist,  27,  28. 
Cotton,  128. 

Council,  of  Ferrara  and  Florence, 
68;  of  Nice,  69,  84;  of  Trent, 
121,  122. 
Coverdale,  xvi,  xvii. 


Cozza,  77. 

Cross,  Invention  of,  84. 

Cureton,  112,  113,  157. 

Curetonian  Syriac.    See  Version. 

Cursives,  40,  132,  134. 

Curzon,  139. 

Cuthlac,  X. 

Cyprian,  59. 

Cyprus,  29. 

Cyril  of  Athos,  93.  , 

Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  172. 

Davidson,  15,  18,  61, 164, 167, 169, 173, 

178,  195. 
Damasus,  153,  154. 
Diocletian,  17,  18. 
Dionysius,  144. 
Dublin,  114,  137. 
Dupuy,  124. 

Edessa,  155. 
Edward  A'^I,  xvii. 
Eichhorn,  134. 
Elizabeth,  xviii. 
Elzevir,  53. 

English  Bible,  opposition  to^  xiii, 
xv;  first  printed,  xv.  Revision  of 
1881.    See  Revision. 

Authorized  or  King  James's, 
xix,  XX,  xxii,  xxiv,  xxv. 

Bishops',  xviii,  xix. 

Coverdale's,  xvi,  xix. 

Cranmer's,  xvii. 

Douay,  xviii. 

Genevan,  xviii,  xix,  xxiv. 

Great,  xvii,  xviii,  xix. 

Matthew's,  x\'i,  xvii,  xix. 

Rhemish,  xviii. 

Taverner's,  xvi. 

Tyndale's,   xv,    xvi,  xix,  xr, 
xxiii. 

Wyclif's,  xii,  xx. 
Ephraem,  101,  103,  156. 
Epiphanius,  59, 
Erasmus,  xvii,  xxiii,  53, 133,137,138, 

174. 
Euclid,  113, 
Eugenius  IV,  68. 
Eusebian  Canons,  42,  69,  98,  105,  119, 

146. 
Eusebius,  28,  59,  85,  123. 
Euthalius,  42^  43,  50,  62,  125. 
Evangelistana,  41, 
Ewald,  158. 

Fathers,  10,  51, 163. 
Faust,  35. 
Fleck,  103. 
Frith,  xvi. 
Froy,  138. 
Frumentius,  160. 

Gaeta,  72, 
Gebhardt,  144, 146. 


204 


INDEX. 


Geneva,  xviii. 

Giobertine  Tincture.  103,  115. 

Gospels,  Apocryphal,  7. 

Canonical,  10. 
Green,  W.,  xxxiii. 
Gregory,  C.  R.,  186. 
Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  59,  60,  115, 

131,  175. 
Gregory  XVI,  76. 
Griesbach,  54,  128, 157. 
Gutenberg,  35. 

Hamburg,  xiv,  128. 
Harkel,  158. 
Harley,  125, 128. 
Harnack,  144,  146, 
Hayne,  138. 
Helena,  84. 

Herculaneum  Rolls,  34,  69. 
Herodotus,  22. 
Hilarianus,  17. 
Hilarion,  160. 
Hilary,  173,  175. 
Hippolytus,  144,  175. 
Homer,  21, 113. 
Hoit,  190. 
Howson,  xxviii. 
Hug,  70  80,  123. 
Humboldt,  56. 
Huntington,  111. 

Ignatius,  109. 
Imposture,  55,  99. 
Irenseus,  18, 118, 175. 

James  I,  xix. 

Jebb,  xxvji. 

Jerome,  119,  153,  154,  175. 

Justinian,  85. 

Justin  Martyr,  175. 

Kahnis,  182. 
Koran,  1,  2,  110. 

Lachmann,  54,  103,  123, 166,  175,  180, 

189. 
Laotse,  1. 
Larroque,  137, 
Lectionary,  41. 
Leipzig,  45,  56,  91,  97,  144,  146,  182, 

183. 
Leipziger  Zeitung,  74,  78. 
Leo  V'l,  Emperor,  133. 
Librai-ius,  27. 
Ligbtfoot,  162. 
Lucar,  58. 
Luther,  xvi. 
Lykurgos,  56. 
Lyons,  117,  121, 122. 

Mai,  71,  75. 
Malpica,  148. 


Manuscripts,  age  of,  22,  49;  classes, 
39;  divisions,  42;  signs,  46;  errors 
in,  32;  form,  44;  fragments,  48, 
127;  Greco-Latin,  119,  120,  126;  il- 
lustrated, 133,  147;  number  of,  21, 
22,  47, 48;  valued,  30;  various  read- 
ings, 20,  21,  168,  170;  where  depos- 
ited, 45;  where  made,  29.  See 
Codex. 

Marcion,  11. 

Mary,  Bloody,  xvii. 

Maximin,  85. 

Medici,  101. 

Michaelis,  20. 

Mico,  71. 

Mill,  21,  71,  102. 

Mohammed,  1,  3. 

Montfaucon,  70. 

Montfort,  137,  138. 

Moscow,  131. 

Muratori,  10, 11. 

Napoleon  I,  80. 

Nero,  8. 

Nicholas  of  Hereford,  xii. 

Nicholas  V,  67. 

Niebuhr,  90. 

Nitria,  111. 

Origen,  28,  51,  127,  156, 172,  173, 

Orm,  xi, 

Ormulum,  xi, 

Oxford,  xii,  xiii,  xiv,  xix,  45,  46. 

Pachomius,  ICO,  161. 
Palimpsest,  33,  50, 101. 
Papias,  123, 
Papyrus,  16,  25,  37. 
Patmos,  46, 128. 
Philodemus,  69. 
Philoxenus,  158. 
Piaggi,  34. 
Pitra,  77. 
Plato,  22. 
Porfiri,  98,  132, 
Praxapostolos,  41. 
Printing,  35, 
Punctuation,  43, 

Reuchlin,  133. 

Revision,  xiv,  xx,  xxv,  153;  reasons 
for,  xx-xxv;  publication  of,  xxix. 
Committee,  xxv,  354;  lists  of, 
xxix-xxxii;  rules  for,  xxvi; 
Communion  celebrated, 
xxvii;  faith  of,  xxxiii. 
Rheims,  xviii. 
Rolle  of  Hampole,  xii. 
Rome,  53,  79;   ascendency  in  Eng- 
land, xvii. 
Rossano,  143. 

Schatf,  xxviii,  xxxiii, 
Schoeffer,  35. 


INDEX. 


205 


Scholz.  54, 137,  174. 

Schulze,  180. 

Scrivener,  32,  48,  50,  57,  60,  83,  120, 

124,  127,  133,  137,  139,  154,  158,  169, 

173,  175,  176,  180,  190. 
Severus  of  Antioch,  113. 
Shepliei-d  of  Hermas,  56,  94,  98. 
Siinonides,  55,  56,  57,  99. 
Stanley,  A.  P.,  xxvlii,  86. 
Stephens,  xxiv,  53,  121. 
St.  Catherine,  Convent  of,  85,  92,  97, 

99. 
St.  Maria  Deipara,  31,  112. 
St.  Maria  de  lo  Patire,  144. 
St.  Petersburg,  45,  96,  97,  132. 
Stichometry,  43,  126. 

Tachvgrapher,  26. 
Tattam,  112. 
Tertius,  26. 
Tertullian,  42,  60,  152. 
Testament,  Old,  6. 

New,  when  written,  7-9 ;  mate- 
rial of  MS.,  37 ;  copies  dis- 
covered, 38;  order  of  books, 
44. 
Textus  Eeceptus,  53, 192, 195. 
Thecla,  59,  62. 
Theophylact,  173. 
Tischendorf ,  9,  54,  56,  68,  74,  75,  77, 

80,  88  sq,,  103,  104, 113, 123, 125,  126, 

145,  166,  169,  173,  176,  182  sq.,  189, 

190. 
Titloi,  42,  61. 
Titus  of  Bostra,  173. 
Traditores,  17. 
Tregelles,  54,  CI,  69,  73,  74,  80,  113, 

123,  134,  139,  140,  157,  166,  169,  173, 

187  sq.,  190,  192. 
Trent,  121,  122. 


Tyndale,  xiv,  xvi,  xxiii,  xxiv. 

Uncial,  39,  40,  47. 
Usher,  110. 

Vatican  Library,  22,  67,  68,  71,  77, 
83,  111.  '''»>. 

Vedas.  1,  2. 
Vellum,  25,  37. 
Venice,  68. 
Vercelli,  153. 
Vercellone,  73,  77. 
Versions,  18.  38.  150  sq. 

Bashmuric,  162. 

Curetonian  Syriac,  31, 156,  157, 
172. 

Jerusalem  Syriac,  158,  159. 

Memphitic,  160,  162. 

Old  Latin,  152,  153,  154. 

Peshito,  12,  155,  157. 

Philoxenian,  127,  158. 

Thebaic,  160,  162. 

Vulgate,  xii,  xvi,  xviii,  18, 121, 
153,  154. 

Westcott,  190. 
Westminster,  xxvii. 
Wetstein,  102,  120. 
William  a  Prato,  121. 
William  of  Shoreham,  xi. 
Wiseman,  73,  152. 
Woide,  66. 
Woolsey,  xxxiii. 
WycUf ,  xii. 

Ximenes,  53. 

Young,  65. 

Zend  Avesta,  1. 


? 


BS2385.M57 

The  story  of  the  manuscripts. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00065  7496 


